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HE TEACHER 
THAT TEACHES 




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Book iKlll 

Copyright N __ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT: 



The Teacher That Teaches 



THE TEAOHEE THAT 
TEACHES 



BY 

AMOS R. WELLS 

Managing Editor of the " Christian Endeavor World ' 



THE PILGRIM PRESS 
BOSTON CHICAGO 



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a* 



A 



6 



UBRARY of CONGRESS 
TwoCeoy Received 

NOV 12 !90f 

-k Copyright Entry 
6>c/ /^ /?*? 

CUSS A ^ KXC, No. 
COPY B. 



Copyright, 1907, 

By the Congregational Sunday-School 

and Publishing Society 



THE FORT HILL PRESS, BOSTON, MASS. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I. How He is Commissioned . * * 9 

II. How He Gets His Scholars 16 

III. How He Prepares to Teach 23 

IV. How He Interests His Scholars 31 

V. How He Uses His Scholars' Hands 37 

VI. How He Uses His Scholars' Eyes 44 

VII. How He Uses His Scholars' Ears , . 51 

VIII. How He Uses His Scholars' Tongues 58 

IX. How He Wins His Scholars' Hearts 65 

X. How He Leads His Scholars to Christ 73 

XI. How He Develops His Scholars ....... 81 

XII. How He Passes His Scholars On 89 



FOREWORD 

There are teachers that do not teach. 

To say that they are in the majority would be to get 
oneself into trouble; therefore I will not say it. 

Rut, to put it in another way, there are multitudes of 
scholars that are not learning; and where scholars are 
not learning, teachers are not teaching. The only 
evidence that a teacher has taught is a scholar who has 
learned. 

A teacher that does not teach may be entirely able to 
teach, if that is any satisfaction to anybody. So may a 
machine that has never moved be able to turn out some 
wonderful product. No one knows. One would like 
to know. The machine itself, one would think, would 
also like to know. 

There is much talk about the difficulty of getting 
Sunday-school teachers; but that talk is foolish. We 
have teachers in abundance, if they all taught. But 
teachers that merely hold their scholars in leash till the 
school is luckily dismissed, teachers that blindly lead 
the blind, teachers that drag a dispirited way through a 
dreary duty, teachers that never really test their work, 
such teachers, and many other kinds that might be de- 
scribed, do not actually teach, or teach so far below 
their possibilities that it is next door to nothing. 

We have teachers enough, I say, if they all taught. 
Indeed, our schools could probably be conducted tri- 
umphantly by half the present number of instructors, 
were they all genuine teachers. 

Now, every teacher wishes to teach. Not in all the 
earth is there to be found a set of men and women more 

[ 7 ] 



FOREWORD 

earnestly desirous of doing Christ's will than the loyal 
army of Sunday-school teachers. It is not a matter of 
the will, but of the way. They want to teach; that is, 
they want to get results, in their scholars' growing 
knowledge, power, and character; but they do not know 
how. 

In these chapters, therefore, I shall aim to do the one 
thing that chiefly needs to be done in all Sunday-schools, 
— and all other schools, too, for that matter, — namely, 
transform the teacher that does not teach into the 
teacher that teaches. 

A sufficiently ambitious aim! And perhaps you think 
the avowal of it to be an egregious exhibition of im- 
modesty. But it is not, for I am not proposing to do 
this out of my own empty head. I have known — and 
know — some very wise and skilful teachers. I have 
known — and know better every day, I trust — the best 
Teacher of all. If I can only picture in words these 
living teachers that teach, their principles of action and 
their methods of work, I am sure that the contagious 
example will teach other teachers how to teach. 

There, at any rate, you have my purpose; and upon 
it I earnestly invoke the blessing of the one Teacher. 

A. R. W. 

AUBURNDALE, MASS. 



[ 8 1 



The Teacher That Teaches 



HOW HE IS COMMISSIONED 

The first essential, if a teacher would teach, is that 
he be commissioned. 

Now, what do I mean by that ? 

Simply this: that in teaching, as in all other work, 
whether of men or machines, the quality of the work, 
and therefore the quality of the product, depends upon 
the motive power. 

I have a phonograph. By turning the knob a little 
way I can set the cylinder to revolving at half speed, 
and I get from the horn the tune the old cow died of. I 
must turn on the whole power, the cylinder must revolve 
at the original rate, the rate at which it revolved when 
it received the impression from the voice or the cornet; 
and not until it revolves thus fast does it make genuine 
music. 

Oh, the wheezy, dismal, half-dead teaching to which 
many classes must listen! Turn on the power! Get 
the full impulse from the spring of all wise action! Let 
every teacher receive his commission! 

I am not exaggerating this matter. No one can long 
observe any Sunday-school without separating the 
teachers into two classes, — those that teach with the 
highest motive and those that teach with some lower 
motive; and only the former really teach at all. 

Not, of course, that the lower motives are bad ones; 
they are not. Some teachers are teaching because of a 

[ 9 J 



HOW HE IS COMMISSIONED 

vague desire to be useful in the church. Others are 
teaching because their friends have urged them to. 
Others are teaching because they are clever and like to 
talk. Still others, because they are authoritative, and 
like to stand at the head of a company, however small, 
and issue commands, and put it through the manual of 
arms. And others — this number is largest of all — are 
moved by a sense of the great need of Christian teaching, 
and are kept at their tasks by a stern conscience, straitly 
responsive to the voice of duty. Some of these motives 
are nobler than others, but no one can call any of them 
bad. 

The True Motive 

Compared with the true motive, however, they are 
weak indeed, and it is no wonder that they cannot pro- 
duce efficient teaching. What is the true motive? It 
is a very sacred thing. My pen hesitates as it draws 
near to a theme so exalted. It is the greatest thing in 
the world. It is the love of Christ. 

For the prime essential of Sunday-school teaching that 
really teaches is — I say it with intense conviction — a 
vital Christian experience. Do you know, in every fiber 
of your being, the love of Christ ? Does it pervade your 
soul, thrilling you, intensifying you, empowering you, 
as the electric current fills the wire with pulsing energy ? 
Is there no hidden, eating sin or love of sin, which, like 
an electrolysis, allows this power to escape ? Are you, 
in this glad, eager love of Christ, given up — entirely 
given up — to do his will ? Is there to you, in all the 
world of pleasure and purpose, no ambition more ap- 
pealing, no pleasure more entrancing, than to win some 
other soul to do his will ? Has this love of Christ and 
of his will led you into a deep and tender love of Christ's 
children, for whom he died and for whom he lives and 

[ 10 ] 



HOW HE IS COMMISSIONED 

longs ? Do you exist for one thing, — all else being 
secondary, — just to bring these two together and join 
them forever, Christ and his children? 

If your answer to those questions is an honest Yes, 
then you have accepted the Great Commission ; you are 
a missionary Christian. No others should teach in the 
Sunday-school. No others can really teach in the 
Sunday-school, however they may dub themselves 
teachers, and cheat themselves and the church with a 
pretense of teaching. 

And all such, all those that have come into the love 
of Christ and of Christ's children and are eager to bring 
the two together, should teach in the Sunday-school as 
long as there are classes enough for them. Indeed, it 
would be quite impossible to keep them out. Pay? 
They would as soon accept pay for writing to their 
wives, or dressing their children! Praise? They are 
willing to drudge along, year after year, decade after 
decade, with ungrateful parents and careless scholars. 
Perseverance ? The most pathetic sight on earth is the 
untiring devotion of such Christians to the souls they 
are trying, and often vainly and hopelessly trying, to 
win. Alas, that such devotion as any one may witness 
in any Sunday-school should so often fail of its full 
reward because it is blundering devotion, using blunt 
tools, and unable to release the angel it sees within the 
marble ! 

These chapters are to sharpen the tools, to give point 
and power to this devotion; but first the devotion must 
exist. And how is the teacher to know whether it exists 
or not ? If his teaching is barren, if his scholars' lives 
are not transformed into beauty and lifted into strength, 
if he must sadly admit that he is not teaching because 
his scholars are not learning, how is he to tell whether 
or not this is the cause of his defeat, this failure of a 

[in 



HOW HE IS COMMISSIONED 

vital Christian experience ? How is he to test his love 
of Christ, his love of Christ's children, and his desire to 
bring the two together? 

He need not test it, for it has already been tested, and 
proved. I know of no other motive than this love and 
this desire that will hold a Sunday-school teacher to his 
difficult task, in the face of failure, or seeming failure, 
for a series of years. In such a case you are not teach- 
ing for praise, since long ago you became hopeless of 
praise; nor because your friends insist upon it, for their 
pressure has long ago ceased; nor to exercise and exhibit 
your cleverness, for you perceive that you are not clever; 
nor even from a sense of duty, for you continually ques- 
tion whether it is not your duty to hand over the class 
to some one who can really teach it. And yet your 
heart cannot resign the task it loves. I say that such 
devotion, under such discouragements — and thousands 
of teachers are showing it — is the best possible proof 
of the love of Christ, the love of his children, and the 
ardent desire to bring the two together. Out of such 
material the most successful teachers are made. They 
have the will; they need only to learn the way. 

No; the real Sunday-school problem concerns itself 
not at all with the teachers that have received their com- 
mission, but with the brilliant teachers that have not 
received it, and are not seeking it. 

The Primary Peril 

In all spiritual work the primary peril is pride. The 
teacher in a Sunday-school enjoys a superb chance to 
show off. He is not obliged, like the secular-school 
teacher, to bear the brunt of a six-hours' daily struggle 
with stupidity, obstinacy, and heedlessness. He need 
only be wise and shrewd, tactful and fascinating, for 
half an hour a week. If he succeeds in that, he has won 

[12 ] 



HOW HE IS COMMISSIONED 

his scholars' hearts and the delighted praise of their 
parents. No one examines his scholars to see whether 
he has really taught them anything. They are not pro- 
moted by strenuous tests. He has only to please them, 
and he will be a success — or, at least, an apparent 
success. It is the glib, shallow, easily satisfied and 
often popular teacher that is likely to be the main hin- 
drance to a school; the teacher who has not received 
his commission, and who is not seeking it. 

One of the principal problems of pastors and super- 
intendents is to bring such teachers under the sway of 
the Great Commission. Ways of doing this are as 
various as the modes of conversion; for it is, essentially, 
a conversion. Sometimes it may be done by talks to 
all the teachers at the teachers' meeting, setting before 
them the one supreme motive that should animate their 
teaching. Sometimes earnest, private conversations or 
letters will be better. Always it is best to set up in the 
school some standard of results, testing each teacher's 
teaching ability not only by examining his scholars for 
what they have learned, but also by noting their progress 
in the Christian life. 

The Remedy 

The surest remedy, however, for the uncommissioned 
teacher is the commissioned teacher. If the commis- 
sioned teacher can only be taught, in ca^e he does not 
already know it, the thing which above all else he is 
yearning to know, namely, how to teach effectively, he 
will then create in the school a warm and vitalizing at- 
mosphere which, if anything, will stir the true motive 
in the hearts of the teachers that now are teaching, 
fruitlessly, from other motives. So that the best thing 
to do for any school is the thing I shall try to do in these 
chapters, — show the commissioned teachers how to 

[13 ] 



HOW HE IS COMMISSIONED 

teach. Until such teachers really teach they cannot 
exalt the Commission, they cannot be an inspiring 
example for other teachers. 

" But teachers are born and not made," is the de- 
spairing cry sure to be raised. There is a measure of 
truth in that. Inherited ability renders it far easier for 
some than for others to succeed in teaching. And yet, 
as I hope to show, Sunday-school success of the highest 
kind is within the reach of any one of average intelli- 
gence, superb persistency, and a wholly consecrated 
heart. Teachers are sometimes born; in ten times as 
many cases they are made. 

No, no! my opening word is this: Forget yourself. 
Forget your ability, whether much or little. Forget 
your failures. Forget your successes. Forget your 
associates, whether you surpass them or they greatly 
surpass you. All these thoughts will lead you wide of 
the mark. Remember one thing, and one thing only: 
your Commission. In your heart is a passionate love 
of the precious Redeemer, a longing akin to his for the 
souls he has redeemed, a burning desire to delight him 
and save them by introducing the one to the other. 
Cherish that. Take it up with confidence as your clew 
to the labyrinth of pedagogical perplexities. It will 
render you humble and teachable — the teacher's first 
qualities. It will inspire you with a wish for better- 
ment. It will hold you to your purpose through a 
thousand failures. And finally — do not doubt for a 
moment — it will succeed. 

For this will always finds a way. The Great Com- 
mission gets itself accomplished. It never fails, when 
minds and hearts are wholly yielded to it. The chap- 
ters that are to follow I shall make entirely practical in 
a way different from this, but this also is entirely prac- 
tical; indeed, it is the soul of practicality. And unless 

[ 14 ] 



HOW HE IS COMMISSIONED 

what has here been said is borne in mind through all 
our discussion of methods, that discussion will be profit- 
less. For above all method is motive, and the teacher's 
constant task, a task in which he must never falter but 
at the risk of failure, is to keep true and ardent his 
initial love of Christ, and love of Christ's children, and 
desire to bring the two together, 



[15] 



II 

HOW HE GETS HIS SCHOLARS 

A true Sunday-school class is not a congeries but an 
entity. It is a creation, formed deliberately and intelli- 
gently; it is not a work of chance. 

The teacher that really teaches must create his class 
before he can teach it. He cannot really teach another 
man's class, though he may pretend to; but first he must 
make it his. This process of making it his may take 
two minutes or two years, it may sweep in all of the 
original members or include none of them; but the 
process must be a success before the teacher can really 
teach. 

It is best, of course, if that is possible, for the teacher 
to form his own class from the beginning. Suppose he 
is thus fortunate; how shall he go about the work of 
class-making ? How shall he obtain his scholars ? 

There is only one way, after all, to get folks to do 
things, and that is to ask them ! If the teacher has really 
received the Great Commission, he will not hesitate to 
ask others to join his class. He is not inviting them to 
himself, but to Christ. He is not urging them to a 
conceited exhibition but to a feast. It is the worst of 
false modesty to shrink from Christian work for fear of 
seeming egotistical. Genuine modesty would so hide 
behind the message as to proclaim it fearlessly, to all 
men, and at any time. 

But after the necessary asking of a few, which must 
be done by yourself in order to start the class, it is best 
that most of the succeeding invitations should be given 

[ 16] 



HOW HE GETS HIS SCHOLARS 

by your scholars. They can praise the class and its 
work most convincingly. They can get closer to their 
friends than you can, as yet. Your scholars are your 
best recruiting agents, and the failure of many a teacher 
is because his scholars were not thus utilized. 

Getting New Recruits 

How can we do this desirable thing? How can we 
set the scholars to getting other scholars? There are 
many ways, and I will name a few of them. 

Place beside each scholar an empty seat, which is to 
remain empty, a standing appeal, until he fills it with a 
new scholar. 

Offer the reward of some attractive book for each new 
scholar brought in. Probably you yourself are not so 
far advanced in the Christian life but that a material 
reward would give you an additional stimulus for the 
performance of a spiritual duty; and why should you 
expect more of them than of yourself ? Surely the com- 
ing of a new scholar, with all the possibilities, for time 
and eternity, involved in the event, is worth fifty cents ! 

Send your scholars forth two by two, like the disciples, 
each two to bring in other two, and arouse a little rivalry 
to see which two will first accomplish its task, and which 
will be the last. 

Appoint two leaders from the class and let them 
" choose up " till all the scholars are on one side or the 
other. Call one side " the Reds " and the other " the 
Blues," or one side " the Washingtons " and the other 
" the Lincolns." These sides are then to make a 
strenuous campaign for new scholars, each striving to 
bring in more than the other side; and the side which, 
after a certain time, has brought in the most is to be 
entertained at a party by the defeated side. This plan 
is very effective. 

[ 17] 



HOW HE GETS HIS SCHOLARS 



Class Organization 

But the best of all methods, if you would obtain and 
perpetuate a large and vigorous class, is some form of 
class organization. The plan I will describe is equally 
applicable to a class of boys or girls and to one of adults. 

First you must have a brisk class name, and not a 
mere number. " The Friendly Class " is a capital 
name. Other good names are " The Ever-Readies," 
" The Bible Hunters," " The Bereans," " The Timo- 
thys," " The Investigators," " The Diamond Hunters," 
" The Search-Light Class." 

Then, having a name, you must have a constitution. 
Let it be very simple, especially at the start. A con- 
stitution that grows is always better than a constitution 
that is made. But, long or short, let every member of 
the class have a copy. The constitution should provide 
for officers, — president, vice-president, secretary, and 
treasurer. The teacher should not hold any office but 
that of teacher, and the class should elect him annually 
with the other officers. If at any time he must be absent 
the class should elect a substitute teacher, and a delega- 
tion from the class should inform the lucky substitute 
of the honor thus conferred upon him! Regular busi- 
ness meetings should be held, and at these the class 
president, and not the teacher, should preside. The 
aim is in every way to throw responsibility upon the 
scholars, and make them feel that the success of the 
class depends upon themselves. 

The constitution should also provide for committees, 
and these committees are the nub of the whole matter. 
Three are enough to start with. One will be a social 
committee, to superintend the class good times which 
I shall describe in another chapter. One will be 
a " porch committee " or " skirmishing committee," 

[ 18 ] 



HOW HE GETS HIS SCHOLARS 

whose duty it will be to keep an eye on the Sunday 
morning congregation, and draw to the class every 
available person in it. This committee will be most 
useful in case the Sunday-school meets immediately 
after the morning service. 

The third committee, and one of much importance, is 
the membership committee. The members of this com- 
mittee will call in the aid of the rest of the class, but they 
will be your chief reliance for maintaining and increasing 
the class membership. Occasionally this committee 
will canvass the entire town for new scholars, dividing 
the streets among them, and learning about every 
family where there is a possible scholar. When a single 
invitation does not persuade, each member of the com- 
mittee in turn will try his hand. They will then send 
others, until " because of their importunity," if for no 
other reason, the new scholar is " compelled to come 
in." 

Sometimes it will be well to present a written invita- 
tion, signed by the entire class. Sometimes the possible 
scholar may be brought to a class social, and thus inter- 
ested in the class. Always it will increase the scholar's 
appreciation of the class if a formal blank application 
for membership in the class is placed before him for his 
signature. Hold up class membership as a privilege to 
be coveted. 

The membership committee will pay especial atten- 
tion to all new families that come to town; and it will 
be well even to startle them with the promptness of your 
invitation. A particularly good time for an effort to 
enlarge the class is when you enter on a new series of 
lessons; make that the basis of a fresh appeal to those 
that have refused before. Or, as you take up any new 
and very attractive plan, use that as an inducement for 
membership. The committee may go everywhere say- 

[ 19 ] 



HOW HE GETS HIS SCHOLARS 

ing, " Hey, Tom! the Ever-Readies are going to make a 
model of the tabernacle this month. Don't you want 
to come in and do it with us ? It'll be great fun." 

Of course, each new scholar should be duly " pro- 
posed for membership " by the committee, and voted 
in at the next meeting. The committee should inform 
him of his election in a dignified note, and the next Sun- 
day the chairman of the committee should clinch the 
matter by calling on the new member and accompany- 
ing him to the class, where he will sign the constitution 
in the presence of them all. Now, he " belongs "; and 
this sense of " belonging " is worth all the trouble of 
class organization, were there not many gains besides. 

This plan will not run itself. The teacher must keep 
it up, and be ever on the watch for symptoms of laxness. 
It is best to call every Sunday for a report of the mem- 
bership committee, and for suggestions as to possible 
members which the rest of the class may give to the 
committee. The teacher himself, also, will have many 
such suggestions to make, in private or before the class. 

In addition to the getting of new members, a very 
important task for the membership committee is the 
work of looking after absentees. Some may think that 
the teacher, and not the scholars, should do this work. 
But I do not believe that the teacher's visits should be 
regarded by the scholars as disciplinary, but as inspired 
merely by friendly good will. Let the scholars hold one 
another to the mark in the matter of attendance, thus 
saving your influence for other matters, while at the 
same time they train themselves for similar duties in the 
mature work of the church. 

The easiest and most efficient way to look after ab- 
sentees is for the membership committee to divide the 
scholars among them, each to keep track of his " squad." 
Then, if Tom is absent, the teacher will ask, " John, 

[20 ] 



HOW HE GETS HIS SCHOLARS 

why isn't Tom here to-day? He is in your squad, I 
believe." John makes a note of it, and at the next 
meeting of the class produces either Tom or a report of 
Tom. Of course, if Tom is sick, John will let the 
teacher know without waiting for the next meeting of 
the class. 

And now it will be seen clearly what I meant at the 
beginning when I said that a true Sunday-school class 
is not a congeries but an entity. It will be seen how a 
class, thus organized and thus working systematically 
together, will soon come to have a character of its own. 
It will develop its own methods of work. It will form 
an esprit de corps. It will be as different from every 
other class as the scholars and teacher are different from 
all other teachers and scholars. 

Of course, after all is said about these various ways 
of maintaining and increasing the class attendance, we 
are continually to remember that the basis of attendance 
is the interest that the teacher himself can arouse and 
maintain by his teaching. That is the real bait, and 
these various methods, these contests, committees, re- 
ports, and so on, are only the rod and line and float and 
sinker that get the bait within reach of the fish. They 
are only preliminaries and adjuncts, but they are neces- 
sary and powerful preliminaries and adjuncts. 

One thing more is to be said, and it is the most im- 
portant point of all. If it is necessary for the teacher, 
in his work for the class, to be inspired by the highest 
motive, love for Christ and for Christ's children and an 
eager desire to bring the two together, no less is it im- 
portant to arouse this motive in the work that the 
scholars do for the class. If their search for new 
scholars is merely a zeal for bigness, or a desire to sur- 
pass some other class, or a rivalry among themselves, it 
will fade with the occasion or be dissipated if circum- 

[21 ] 



HOW HE GETS HIS SCHOLARS 

stances reduce the numbers. Nothing can maintain 
their earnestness in this direction except a longing that 
their comrades shall be taught of Christ. And such a 
longing — never believe the contrary ! — may be im- 
planted in the breasts of boys and girls. 

Animated by that same longing, the teacher himself 
will never be satisfied with a small class, while it is 
possible that it might be a large one. We talk of six- 
pupil teachers, twelve-pupil teachers, and so on; and 
certainly every teacher has a limit beyond which he 
cannot hold the attention of a class. But the teacher 
that really teaches, being ambitious not for himself but 
for the Kingdom of God, would always rather risk 
going beyond that limit than falling a degree below it! 



[ 22 ] 



Ill 

HOW HE PREPARES TO TEACH 

Many teachers fail to teach because they do not 
prepare to teach. Their teaching, unlike the steady 
flow from a well-filled fountain pen, is like the output 
of a pen that is nearly empty — a few minutes of blotty 
spurts, then a rapid lessening of fluid, and finally nothing 
but dry scratches! Effective teaching is the overflow 
of a crowded mind, not the desperate drainings of a 
mind at its last ebb of information. The teacher must 
know much more than his scholars if he would cause 
them to know anything at all. 

The Teacher's Helps 

The teacher's principal helps, 1 in preparing to teach, 
are six: a reference Bible, a good commentary, a Bible 
dictionary, an atlas, a Bible index or text cyclopedia, 
and as many teachers' periodicals as he can afford. 
For the Bible, the Revised Version by all means, if he 
really wants to know what the original writers wrote. 
For the commentary, as a general rule, the separate 
volumes of the Cambridge Bible. For the atlas, those 
in the Oxford, Cambridge, and International Bibles are 
excellent; with, as soon as it can be afforded, George 
Adam Smith's " Historical Geography of the Holy 
Land." For textual work, Walker's Concordance and 
Inglis' Bible Text Cyclopedia. For the Bible diction- 

lf The Cambridge Bible, 40c. to $1.20 net per volume; Historical Geog- 
raphy of the Holy Land, $4.50; Walker's Concordance, $1.00 net; Inglis' 
Bible Text Cyclopedia, $1.75; Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, $6.00 net 
per volume (5 vols.); Davis' Bible Dictionary, $2.00. 

[ 23 ] 



HOW HE PREPARES TO TEACH 

ary, Davis' if it must be small and if the great work of 
Hastings cannot be obtained. 

In the use of these helps the Bible is first to be read, 
a big swath of it, reaching far back of the last lesson 
and far ahead of the next lesson, and sweeping in all 
the references. It cannot too emphatically be said that 
the way to become an original and skilful Bible scholar 
is to get all you can on any point from the Book itself 
before consulting any other book. 

Mark your Bible as you proceed. If your Bible is 
too good to be marked, wrap it up in tissue paper and 
pay twenty-five cents for a Bible that will be useful. 
Underscore words relating to thoughts you wish to in- 
troduce in teaching, and place question marks in the 
margin indicating difficulties that have presented them- 
selves for solution. 

Next, the atlas, to fix the location of the lesson. Use 
the scale of miles to discover the distance from Jeru- 
salem and other centers. Find what towns near you 
are the same distance apart. 

Then, the Bible dictionary, where you will read the 
entire articles relating to the important points of the 
lesson, — such articles as " Agriculture " (for the para- 
ble of The Sower), " Hyssop " (for the crucifixion les- 
son), " Bethel " (for Jacob's vision). This reading will 
prove unexpectedly fruitful. 

Next, the commentary, for the answers to the ques- 
tions that have arisen as you have studied thus far, and 
for a flood of fresh light upon the whole matter. 

Then, the teachers' " helps " for a comprehensive 
view of the whole subject, clarifying your mind, system- 
atizing your knowledge, and suggesting the best modes 
of teaching the lesson. These books, magazines, and 
papers are strong in different directions. You will soon 
learn to rely upon one for effective illustrations, upon 

[ 24 ] 



HOW HE PREPARES TO TEACH 

another for masterly analysis, upon a third for teaching 
methods. 

Finally, the concordance or Bible index for fuller 
Bible light upon the one theme which, as you will see 
by this time, is to be your climax for the lesson half hour. 

I do not pretend that all this will not take time. A 
Sunday-school lesson is not made " while you wait." 
There is no royal road to teaching that teaches. You 
will need to begin on next Sunday's lesson as soon as 
you have taught this Sunday's. You will need to carry 
your books with you, on the cars, propped up before 
you on the kitchen table, laid by the side of your bed. 
Each time you go over a certain section of the Bible the 
work will be easier; but the first time especially do not 
expect success without enormous painstaking. 

So much for the information. But, for any teacher, 
information is only half of preparation. Many teachers 
fail because they have not prepared to teach. You have 
studied the lesson as a scholar; very well. It is now 
necessary that you study it as a teacher. You have 
learned the lesson; it is now necessary that you learn 
how to make the scholars know what you have learned. 
It is a sad but very common mistake for a teacher to 
study his lesson and think that thereby he has prepared 
himself to teach that lesson. Teaching is an art, like 
the painter's; and Turner has not got very far when he 
stretches his canvas, lays out his brushes, and puts a 
supply of colors on the palette. 

Teaching the Lesson 

Disregarding all philosophical refinements, there are 
five things that a teacher must do in really teaching any 
lesson to any class. He must get their attention. He 
must get them to tell what they know. He must get 
them to reach out for and lay hold on what they do not 

[25 ] 



HOW HE PREPARES TO TEACH 

know and he does know. He must fasten in their 
minds what has been done. He must set them to work 
for the next lesson, thus providing for a continuance of 
the process. If a teacher, in preparing to teach, fails 
to plan for winning attention, eliciting expression, arous- 
ing interest, reviewing, and setting his scholars at work 
at home, his so-called preparation for teaching is a 
misnomer. He has studied the lesson; he has not pre- 
pared to teach it. 

Let me give a few suggestions on each of these five 
points. 

There are three divisions of a lesson that require 
special attention — the opening, the close, and — the 
middle! Practically, however, unless you succeed in 
the first, you may whistle for the second and the third. 

There are many different ways of winning attention, 
and the wise teacher will use all of these ways in turn, 
remembering that variety is the best hook for a mind. 
For example, if you are teaching the story of Joseph's 
going to Egypt, a good beginning would be the rapid 
relation of Dr. Hale's capital tale, " Hands Off." 
Starting the lesson on Christ's birth, you might ask the 
brisk question, " What is the most wonderful event in 
the world's history ? " Teaching the lesson on Jacob's 
ladder, you might begin with a pointed personal ques- 
tion addressed sharply to some member of the class, 
" Do you ever dream ? " Or, a startling statement 
might serve as the lesson introduction; as: " You have 
heard of Shylock, who would sell his soul for a pound 
of human flesh. Well, that was fiction; but we are to 
study about a man who did sell his soul for a few pounds 
of flesh." Then will follow the lesson about the death 
of John the Baptist. Sometimes you will obtain atten- 
tion by merely holding up an interesting picture, such 
as Hofmann's " The Child Jesus with the Doctors in 

[ 26 ] 



HOW HE PREPARES TO TEACH 

the Temple," when you are teaching that beautiful 
lesson. Or, to use a device that is most effective but 
very simple, you might hold up a pencil tablet and draw 
hastily some simple diagram, such as the outline of a 
pair of stairs, rising and then descending a step or two 
and abruptly broken off, introducing the lesson on 
Saul's progress in noble ways followed by his rapid fall. 
In this matter of opening a lesson there is wide oppor- 
tunity for ingenuity, and nowhere is ingenuity better 
repaid. 

After the teacher has obtained his scholars' attention, 
the next step in the teaching process is to draw out what 
they know about the lesson. This also may be done 
in various ways, — by questioning them, by setting 
them to questioning you or one another, by setting them 
to writing, by getting them to bring in and discuss the 
results of their home work, by obtaining from them 
little essays or talks on set subjects, and in a number of 
ways besides, all of which are to be treated more fully 
in a later chapter. One of these methods must be 
chosen by the teacher, and usually it will be best to 
select a different way for each lesson. 

The third step in the teaching process, and the most 
difficult of all, is to lead the scholars to reach out after 
more knowledge. A good teacher is known by his 
scholars' questions far more than by his own. The 
great problem of teaching is to arouse the spirit of 
inquiry. 

For this end also no general prescription is possible. 
Sometimes it is reached by the teacher's intentional 
overstatement which is questioned. Again, a paradox 
will excite the temper of investigation. You may offer 
to solve, or try to solve, any difficulty that has arisen in 
their minds; or, you may tell them that there is sl diffi- 
culty in connection with a certain verse or topic, and 

[ 27 ] 



HOW HE PREPARES TO TEACH 

ask if any of them has discovered it. You may call 
for additions to a certain statement or account until 
they have quite exhausted their information, and will be 
eager to see what more you can add. You may divide 
the class in two parts and propose a subject for debate, 
as, whether Joseph was justified in the measures he 
took with the Egyptians during the seven years of plenty, 
offering yourself to furnish ammunition to either side — 
as desired. One of the best methods for gaining this 
end of arousing in them an inquiring spirit is to set 
each one of them, in turn, to questioning you on a 
given subject. You will then praise the questions that 
are pointed and searching, and that praise will be a 
splendid stimulus to a wisely inquiring habit of mind. 

The final steps of the teaching process are the review 
and the forward look, — such a look forward as shall 
set the class to studying, definitely and purposefully, at 
their homes. These matters must be treated carefully 
in later chapters, and are merely noted here. 

These are the methods; but by these methods every 
lesson must seek two distinct ends : to better the scholar's 
life, and to increase his Bible knowledge. For each of 
these the teacher should definitely plan. 

The Two Goals 

Every lesson should have a distinct mental goal, 
easily attained, but clearly one step in advance. These 
goals should be set up, one after the other, on a straight 
road upon which you fixed at the beginning of the 
quarter. Each lesson, that is, must leave your scholars 
knowing one new Bible fact of importance, and knowing 
that they know it. These facts will be orderly and 
cumulative. For example, at the beginning of the 
quarter you proposed to the class that each week they 
learn one leading fact in the history of the divided 

[28 ] 



HOW HE PREPARES TO TEACH 

kingdoms; or, at the beginning of a year's study of 
Christ's life, you filled the class with zeal to learn each 
week one of the prominent facts in the life of our Lord, 
promising that thus they would have by the end of the 
year such a working outline of the wonderful life as few 
Christians possess. You will write down and date in 
advance every step of the proposed course, and you will, 
of course, review persistently. Both you and your class 
will be delighted with the progress that is gained from 
a step a week, however short the step may be. 

As to the application of the lessons to your scholars' 
lives, I would use the same definiteness and the same 
long-reaching system. At the beginning of every quar- 
ter I would determine what distinct spiritual impression 
I would seek to produce with each separate lesson. I 
would make a list of these purposes — or it might be 
only a single purpose — and I would plan for every 
lesson some precise way of making this application to 
life. It might be by an earnest little talk at the end, 
closed with a word of prayer or with silent prayer. It 
might be by a tender little note for each of them, which 
is to be read after they reach home. It might be by a 
reminder of some recent event that has moved them, or 
by some reminiscence from your own past. It might 
be by the request that during the coming week they try 
to obey a certain precept of the lesson, and report their 
success at the next meeting of the class. The ways are 
many; the essential thing is that some way be definitely 
selected. 

And that is the essence of this chapter. Do not rest 
content with mere information about the lesson, how- 
ever full it may be. You have five distinct things to do 
with your scholars, and through doing those five things 
you have two definite goals to reach. In these seven 
points consists the teacher's preparation, as distinct 

[ 29 ] 



HOW HE PREPARES TO TEACH 

from the preparation which he must make in common 
with the scholar. No lesson is prepared for teaching 
until, in these seven particulars, you have formed clear 
designs, and have thought them out so carefully that 
they are part of the vital frame of your lesson. These 
seven essentials are the parted spectrum, which com- 
bines to make the white light of perfect Sunday-school 
teaching, 



I 30 ] 



IV 
HOW HE INTERESTS HIS SCHOLARS 

Before I discuss more particularly the various phases 
of Sunday-school teaching, I want to treat the general 
but fundamentally important matter of arousing the 
scholars' interest in the class, in the work, and in the 
teacher himself. Until this interest is aroused, very 
little can really be accomplished. As Shakespeare says, 
" No profit goes where there's no pleasure ta'en," which 
may be rudely parodied for our purpose, " No learning 
goes where there's no interest ta'en." 

Consider first the etymological meaning of interest, 
from the Latin inter and est, — to be between. Interest 
is an affair between you and your scholars. If you 
would interest them, you must get among them, be one 
of them; as the slangy but very graphic phrase of the 
day is, you must " get next " to them. And that, in 
one form or another, is really the teacher's first task 
after he has any scholars to inter-est at all. 

The initial observation concerns the teacher himself, 
and has regard to a point that perhaps nine out of ten 
teachers entirely neglect and overlook. He must be in- 
teresting, if he would interest; that is, he must have an 
interesting personality. It is not what he says, so much 
as what he is, that will attract the scholars. The more 
there is " to him," the more he will be to them. 

Everything you do to make yourself more of a man, 
more of a woman, makes you a better teacher. No devel- 
opment comes amiss, be it spiritual, mental, or physical. 
There is no breadth of culture but will tell even with 

[31 ] 



HOW HE INTERESTS HIS SCHOLARS 

little children. Whether it be the reading of Browning's 
poems or of Dickens' " Martin Chuzzlewit," of the 
autobiography of Franklin, or Dante's " Inferno," it will 
not be wasted upon the primary department. You may 
make no reference in your teaching to Mark Tapley or 
Beatrice, to Franklin or Caliban or Setebos, but you 
will be a better and more attractive teacher by as much 
as you are purer, stronger, and more kindly. 

And then, how important is good health also, if one 
would interest others in any subject! It is well-nigh 
impossible to utter vigorous speech from a feeble body, 
to take broad views with a narrow chest, or keep a level 
head if the head is aching. I am not forgetting the 
splendid invalids of the world's history; but they have 
been wise and winning in spite of their sicknesses, and 
surely never because of them. Health is attractive and 
interesting, in itself. Feebleness, in itself, is uninter- 
esting and repulsive. 

Here is a teacher whose eyes are bright, whose skin 
is pink and white, whose lips are full and red, whose 
flesh is firm, whose nerves are strong, whose bearing is 
alert and vigorous, whose voice is rich and vibrant, 
whose entire being is well poised, buoyant, and alert, 
radiating a sunny good cheer. 

And here is another teacher with dull eyes, a sallow, 
wrinkled skin, lips pinched and pale, muscles flabby, 
nerves a-quiver with pain or the sorry expectation of 
pain, with a dispirited, defeated air, a voice half whine, 
and a soul that is evidently staggering beneath many 
burdens. 

There is no need to ask which teacher would interest, 
fascinate, and hold the scholars, and which, though a 
determined spirit might somehow win the victory de- 
spite all hindrances, yet would have a desperate struggle, 
constantly on the edge of failure. 

[ 32 ] 



HOW HE INTERESTS HIS SCHOLARS 

There are those that would count good health to be 
half a teacher. Certainly it is quite half of that im- 
perial quality known as " personal magnetism," that 
glorious something which conquers by a smile, a gesture, 
and enables its fortunate possessor to do more with 
other folks by his mere presence than without it one 
could do by weeks of strenuous endeavor. 

I was talking, the other day, with a college president 
who had been choosing a man for his faculty. One 
person in particular was recommended to him as pos- 
sessing every qualification for the place, having a noble 
character and high ability. My friend entertained him 
at his home, and, after he had gone, asked his wife for 
her impression. It was given with reluctance: "He 
could never lead the boys." The president also had 
formed that opinion, and the man was not chosen. For 
all his scholarship and his beautiful character, he lacked 
personal magnetism. 

In this case health was not at fault. Physical vigor 
is not the whole of personal magnetism. There is an- 
other half of that perfect quality which rises into the 
soul's domain. It is, as nearly as I can define it, the 
spirit of youthfulness. It is that young heart which 
serenely holds the years in subordination, and sees life 
as fresh at eighty as at eight. It is an endless capacity 
for enjoyment, which makes a sport of the dreariest 
task, and dances after any plough. Young people leap 
akin to such a spirit, and old people at the sight of him 
get happy visions of eternal youth. 

Men are in the habit of speaking about personal 
magnetism as if it were a fortunate gift, wholly beyond 
the reach of those that have not received it at birth. 
But if I am at all right in my crude analysis of it, if, 
roughly speaking, it is made up of a healthy body and 
a youthful soul, then certainly we can all work toward 

[ 33 ] 



HOW HE INTERESTS HIS SCHOLARS 

it with some prospect of attainment. For the laws of 
health are simple, as are all God's laws, and if the heart 
of youth were not to be gained, Christ would not re- 
quire, of those who would enter the heavenly kingdom, 
that they should first become as little children. No; 
an interesting personality is within the reach of any 
teacher, and it is to be obtained, as all other good things 
are obtained, by sensibly directed effort. 

Next to an interesting personality, if a teacher would 
interest his scholars, he must be interested in what he 
is teaching. Interest in any matter is contagious. Let 
a man stop on the street and stare upward at a certain 
chimney, and soon the entire streetful will have stopped 
and will be staring at that chimney. Interest is one of 
the most easily communicated of all emotions; only, it 
must be genuine interest. No one can feign it success- 
fully. 

This interest in a subject is born of knowledge. One 
soon comes to like what one thoroughly understands. 
To put it jinglingly, inspiration springs from informa- 
tion. If you saturate yourself with any lore, you will 
soon come to have an enthusiasm for it. 

Then, let the enthusiasm have full swing! Some 
teachers are stupidly afraid to make manifest the depth 
and intensity of their interest in the Bible, and no 
wonder they fail to interest their pupils. They assume 
in their teaching the dictatorial attitude: "Take it! " 
or the impersonal attitude: "Take it, or leave it!" 
Their bearing is limp. Their face is a dull mask. Their 
voice is level and monotonous. 

Now every teacher should watch the children when 
they are really interested in a matter. How their faces 
shine ! How their eyes sparkle ! How their voices ring ! 
How brisk are their questions, how gay is their laughter, 
and how animated is every attitude and gesture! Thus 

[ 34 ] 



HOW HE INTERESTS HIS SCHOLARS 

will a true teacher dare to be enthusiastic. The Bible 
will plainly be his great delight, and he will easily, there- 
fore, inspire that joy in others. He will be bold to 
exhibit his interest. 

In one other matter besides the Bible the teacher must 
be interested, if he would interest his scholars ; and that 
is the art of teaching. It is the art of arts, the art by 
which all knowledge is perpetuated and grows, the art 
by which all character comes to fulness of beauty, the 
art of Jesus Christ. Its theories and the practise of it 
are alike fascinating, and the true teacher will be its 
eager devotee. 

Then, the teacher that would interest his scholars 
must be unfeignedly interested in them. Unfeignedly; 
this interest also cannot be pretended successfully. 
And, as I said about interest in the Bible, so I say con- 
cerning an interest in children, — it is born of knowl- 
edge. The more you know about them, the more you 
will love them; and the more you love them, if you 
express that love, the more will they love you. 

Your teaching, if it would interest, must be based upon 
some interest the scholars already feel, as a house is 
founded on what is actually beneath it. Neglect of this 
rather obvious principle produces teaching which is fit- 
tingly said to be " in the air." If you are not in touch 
with some present interest of your scholars, you are not 
at all ready to teach them. Whatever it is, — dolls, 
League base-ball, the circus, marbles, an automobile 
race, — you must begin with that or not at all, and 
conduct them from their interest into your own. 

There is one interest of all children — and grown- 
ups, for that matter, — on which you can always rest 
at least one corner of your pedagogical structure, and 
that is their interest in one another. Thence comes the 
vast advantage of the recitation or conversation over the 

[35 ] 



HOW HE INTERESTS HIS SCHOLARS 

lecture as a means of instruction. Your scholars will 
probably be far more interested in what their comrades 
say than in what you say, and the wise teacher has con- 
tinually to bear in mind that even a blundering expres- 
sion of some fact or truth which he elicits from a scholar 
is more likely to win the attention of the class than the 
most finished and exact expression that he himself 
might utter. 

And, finally, every scholar is supremely, and with 
wholly natural egotism, interested in himself. The wise 
teacher must remember that interest, if he is to interest 
the scholar. That is why, throughout these chapters, I 
shall be constantly suggesting things for the scholars to 
do. No one really knows a truth, however often or 
however interestedly he hears it, until he expresses it 
himself. His own expression of it, whether by tongue 
or hand, is more interesting to him than any expression 
by the teacher or even the other scholars. So that, after 
all is said, without in the least lessening my insistence 
that the teacher should have an interesting personality, 
an interest in his subject, his art, and his scholars, and 
a knowledge of their interests, yet the chief emphasis is 
to be laid upon their interest in themselves, in the words 
they themselves speak or write and the things they make 
with their hands. And therefore to the development of 
that interest by the teacher, and the utilizing of it toward 
the learning and the practise of the Bible, the greater 
part of these chapters will be directed. 



[36] 



V 

HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' HANDS 

Sunday-school teaching, like the teaching in secular 
schools, has progressed backward. In the early days 
the teacher led the scholar through Eargate alone, 
merely talking to him, or, at best, questioning and 
answering. Later, we learned to lead our scholars 
through Eyegate, utilizing the inestimable aid of pic- 
tures. It is only recently that our Sunday-schools have 
found a third portal to the scholars' interest and under- 
standing, Handgate, the use as pedagogical assistants 
of the scholars' own hands, doing something, making 
something. 

Now our own hands are our first teachers. Before 
the baby learns to look intelligently at objects, and still 
longer before he learns to listen intelligently, he is feeling 
intelligently, and has a touch-knowledge of everything 
within his reach. Passing from babyhood, the child is 
a materialist, ever judging the unknown from the known, 
keenly alive to things of sense. It was so with the child- 
hood of the race. The Hebrews were taught to make 
the ark, the showbread, the laver, and so they gradually 
arrived at the ideas of divine protection, communion, 
and purity. Even in our most mature days, Handgate 
is the most effective mode of approach to truth. A 
thing made is never forgotten. 

And so I should be slow to name the age at which the 
hand work I am to outline should cease in the Sunday- 
school. But at any rate, there is no doubt where it 
should begin, — in the kindergarten department. Such 

[ 37 ] 



HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' HANDS 

a department should be maintained in every school, even 
those that have only one room for the school sessions, 
and that room the large auditorium of the church. In 
such a case the best plan is to obtain for the kinder- 
garten a room in some private house near by, where the 
youngest children may meet apart from the distractions 
of the school, and where the kindergarten material may 
be stored and displayed. 

Of these tools for hand work the best known, and one 
of the most useful, is the sand map. This is easily 
made, being merely a shallow, oblong tray, filled with 
damp sand. On this delightful arena the entire form 
of Palestine may be built up, with its mountains, its 
rivers and lakes made of mirrors embedded in the sand, 
its forests of cedar twigs, and its cities of white block 
houses. Thus you may attempt ambitiously the scenes 
of Paul's travels even to Italy, or you may confine your- 
self to Jerusalem with its hills, the Goliath-David valley, 
or the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. Men will be 
simply pegs of different colors, moved about as the 
events proceed. Great vividness may be given to the 
lesson by this device. The teacher should do the work 
first by himself, and then before the class ; but he should 
not be satisfied until the scholars themselves have done 
it — nor, for that matter, will they be ! To that end 
you may well have several sand trays, that many may 
work at once, and also that old work may be kept 
standing occasionally while you pass on to new. 

Another most profitable field for hand work is the 
drawing of maps, — the rapid, free-hand drawing in the 
class, the more careful and elaborate drawing at home, 
the copying of a map drawn by the teacher in the pres- 
ence of the class, the drawing of maps altogether from 
memory. Few teachers make full enough use of out- 
line maps, of a country or a part of a country, drawn 

[ 38 ] 



HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' HANDS 

swiftly by the class upon paper tablets, merely for the 
purpose of locating certain places and tracing certain 
events. Thus each journey taken by the character you 
are studying should have its map. Thus each change 
in the nation may be separately and graphically chroni- 
cled. Thus the map of a country or a smaller region 
will be drawn so persistently that its outline will become 
a permanent part of the scholars' minds. 

Almost endless are the uses that may be made of the 
outline map in the hands of your scholars. Symbols of 
events may be attached to the map here and there, — 
the picture of a jar or a bunch of grapes at Cana, the 
picture of a dagger on the Jericho road, the outline of 
three crosses by the Damascus gate of Jerusalem. 
Colored paper stars may be stuck on here and there, — 
blue where Elijah was, red for Jezebel, pale pink for 
Ahab. The map may be placed on a board, and pin- 
mounted paper banners bearing the names of the lesson 
characters may be moved from place to place as the 
events develop. Or, colored yarns, leading from one 
pin to another, may indicate the routes followed by the 
various characters. Numbered " stickers " may be 
placed here and there: 1, where the first recorded event 
of a certain man's life occurred; 2, where the second 
event took place, and so on. These uses of the outline 
map will multiply as the teacher goes on in the work. 

A third kind of map which every scholar should make 
is the permanent raised map. This may be made of 
paper pulp, or putty, or clay, and the fashioning of it 
will prove a very charming occupation for you and your 
pupils. For this purpose you will merely need to trans- 
late into actual elevations and depressions the physical 
maps given in most teachers' helps. Use paint to bring 
out the features clearly, coloring the water blue and 
the forests green, and putting in dots of white for the 

[ 39 ] 



HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' HANDS 

towns and cities. Thus you may make, as the lessons 
require, relief maps of the Holy Land, of the scenes of 
Paul's travels, of Jerusalem, of the Sea of Galilee, of 
the Sinai region, of Egypt. 

These same materials — paper pulp, putty, and mod- 
eling clay — may be used to form from pictures a great 
variety of objects that will profitably illustrate Eastern 
customs. Thus the class will be pleased to fashion 
models of stone water-jars and leather water-bottles, of 
the hand-mill, the sheepfold, a house with the inner 
court and the outer stairs, an altar, a candlestick, the 
temple itself, a lamp, the stone rolled away from the 
grave. 

Wood is another most useful material for these illu- 
minating exercises. The girls will like to whittle quite 
as well as the boys. Models of Oriental tables may be 
made of wood, also a throne, a chariot, an ark, a spear, 
rollers for a book, cubits of different lengths hinged 
together, poles for a tent, the girls furnishing the cloth. 

Many excellent models, too, may be made of paste- 
board, — a house, a table, a throne, and the like. These 
may be appropriately painted, and they will give a 
capital idea of the originals. 

The making of Eastern costumes is a pleasant and 
instructive occupation, and the costumes, when made, 
are very useful in Sunday-school work. The garb of a 
Jewish maiden, of a high priest, of a sheik, of Pharaoh 
himself or Caesar, may be quite plausibly imitated from 
pictures. The girls, of course, will be in their element 
here, but the boys will like to make a set of Roman 
armor. 

Bible-marking is one of the most useful forms of hand 
work, because it bears so directly upon the studies of 
the scholars. It leads the scholars to use their Bibles, 
and to study each lesson at home. For this work every 

[ 40 ] 



HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' HANDS 

pupil should have a permanent Bible, with good paper 
and type and in the Revised Version, a Bible to be 
carried with one throughout life. The simplest — and, 
I think, the best — form of Bible-marking for the class 
is this : Let the teacher discover, a week in advance, the 
leading topic of the coming lesson, and announce it to 
the class. It may be Temperance, or Courage, or Sal- 
vation. Each scholar will then bring from home two 
or three Bible verses, the best he can find, upon this 
topic. These verses will be read in the class, those that 
are not to the point will be weeded out, and the rest will 
be marked in every Bible. The marking will be by the 
use of appropriate letters in the margin, such as " Tern " 
for Temperance, " C " for Christ, " F " for Faith, etc. 
Some would prefer the use of colors, such as a red cross 
for Salvation, a red line for Courage, blue for Hope or 
Heaven, green for Life and Growth, and so on. This 
plan, however, is far from flexible and comprehensive, 
and one is liable to forget the meaning of the symbols. 
Colors may be used to indicate quickly to the eye a few 
leading topics, such as " Christ," but the system of 
lettering is more practical for a standby. 

Every good teacher knows the value of diagrams; but 
these are twice as valuable if made by the scholars as 
well as the teacher. The description of what is wanted 
should be given a week in advance, with perhaps the 
exhibition of a specimen diagram of the kind, and the 
pupils will be expected to construct similar diagrams 
very neatly at home and bring them in the next Sunday. 
Sample subjects for these diagrams are the lists of kings 
of Judah and Israel in parallel columns; the crossing of 
the Red Sea; the position of the armies, brook, etc., at 
the scene of David's combat with Goliath; Paul's ship- 
wreck; the prophecies of Amos, circling inward among 
the nations to sweep down upon Israel; the ground plan 

[ 41 ] 



HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' HANDS 

of the tabernacle and of the temple; genealogical trees; 
a tabular showing of the place, time, persons, teachings, 
of a series of lessons. A succession of diagrams, with 
short lines of different colors and in different positions 
representing the various characters, may be made to 
show the progress of an event. Thus a circle will repre- 
sent the Pool of Bethesda, vertical lines the friends of 
the sick folks, horizontal lines the sick themselves, and 
one horizontal line by itself, the poor man who had no 
friend, while Christ (a short red line) surrounded by his 
disciples (blue) is shown approaching. Another dia- 
gram will show Christ standing by the sick man, and a 
third diagram will show the sick man on his feet! In 
this way the parable of The Good Samaritan may be 
drawn, that of The Prodigal Son, the stories of Barti- 
mseus and of Zacchseus, and, indeed, all Bible events. 

Among the scholars will be those that can successfully 
copy pictures, even those of considerable difficulty. 
Get them to make large copies, for exhibition to the 
class and to the school, of the small drawings in books, 
such as that of a juniper-tree, an Eastern house, the 
restored temple, a cedar of Lebanon, or even Tiberias. 

Others of the scholars can letter well, and this skill 
should be utilized in making for the class illuminated 
texts, that will fix the truths of the various lessons, or 
especially handsome diagrams and lists, to be kept be- 
fore the class during an entire quarter. All of the 
scholars can do something of this work. A teacher 
makes a tactical blunder when he himself prepares any 
diagram or other device for exhibition before the class; 
he should get his scholars to do it for him. 

Even the tiny folks, too young to make letters or do 
much of the other work I have indicated, may be set to 
cutting from paper shapes appropriate to the different 
lessons, such as a lamp, a dove, a cross, a star, a palm 

[ 42 ] 



HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' HANDS 

branch, a boat. They may be given outline pictures 
or maps to color, or suitable Biblical designs to prick 
out or to embroider simply in bright worsteds. There 
is no method of the secular kindergartens but may be 
adapted to this highest of all uses. I do not speak here 
of the making of scrap-books, the writing of biographies, 
the collection of pictures, the filling out of blanks and 
similar methods, because, though they involve hand 
work, they are chiefly head work, and will be treated 
more appropriately in another chapter. There are, 
however, many kinds of hand work that I have not dis- 
cussed, which the quick-witted teacher will hit upon, 
if he once enters this fruitful field. This hand work, 
too, leads naturally on to head work, such as the writing 
of essays upon topics in which the scholars have become 
interested through these manual labors. 

Finally, let me urge the holding of an annual exhibit 
of what the school has turned out by these exercises of 
hand and head. Let each scholar's work be plainly 
marked with his name, and perhaps some rewards may 
be conferred upon the most meritorious. The parents 
will be interested in the exhibition quite as much as 
the children, and opportunity should be taken, while the 
company is gathered together, to talk to them about 
the value of Bible study, and invite every one to join 
the school. 



[43] 



VI 

HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' EYES 

Next to the hands of the scholar in teaching value 
come the hands of the teacher. In olden times this 
value of the teacher's hands was readily admitted, a 
hickory switch or ferule being placed therein! But now 
we place there a bit of chalk. 

It has come to be a classic story, how the lecturer, 
holding a crayon, advanced to the blackboard, touched 
it with the crayon, and then looked around to find every 
eye fixed upon him eagerly. " That's all," he calmly 
said, dropping the crayon. He had merely sought to 
give his audience a lesson in the power of chalk to gain 
attention. 

That position, chalk on blackboard, is typical of the 
wise teacher. He will quite as often be doing some- 
thing interesting as saying something interesting. He 
will know how to appeal to eye curiosity. 

The first delight of young people is in making things; 
the next, in seeing things made. Nor do I care to omit 
old folks from that statement. The best advertisement 
a shopkeeper can put in his show-window is a man or a 
woman doing something. Processes are always vivid 
and fascinating, and the shrewd teacher will be skilled 
in the art of insinuating truth along with some visible 
process. 

So that a picture shown is not as useful to the teacher 
as a picture drawn; and yet there is action in merely 
showing a picture, producing it briskly from its conceal- 
ment, and holding it out with evident zest. The teacher 
has stopped talking! The teacher has appealed to a 

[ 44 ] 



HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' EYES 

new sense! To the extent of that new sense the teaching 
is at once re-enforced. 

Every teacher, therefore, should have a collection of 
pictures, and he will come to value this collection next 
to his Bible. In the first place, he will be assiduous in 
gathering pictures of Bible localities. The Jordan, 
Bethany, Nazareth, the Mount of Olives, the Sea of 
Galilee, Lebanon, Bethlehem, — a minute with a good 
picture of one of these is better than an hour of the best 
description. Admirable half-tone prints may now be 
obtained for a cent apiece, or even for half a cent. In 
addition, these pictures may be cut from illustrated 
periodicals, and mounted on cardboard. This is an 
age of pictures, and to be without them in our Bible 
teaching is a disgrace. 

These pictures will be held up by the teacher for 
general examination, and then passed around for careful 
inspection. Write plainly on the card a fact or two 
about the scene, and you will find those facts remem- 
bered, though all the rest of the lesson is forgotten. 
Useful reviews may be conducted by means of the pic- 
tures. Bringing them forth, at haphazard, you will ask, 
" Where is this scene ? What happened here ? Who 
were the actors in that event? What is the most im- 
portant thing said ? What is the chief teaching of the 
event ? " Besides these uses, the pictures may occa- 
sionally be given to the scholars to carry home and set 
up in their own rooms, where they will teach Bible 
lessons every day, all the year round. 

But your collection of pictures must be far more than 
geographical. It will include representations of every- 
thing Oriental that can be represented in pictures, — 
Eastern customs, costumes, houses, furniture, utensils, 
and the like. These will be gathered and mounted, and 
will be used like the others. 

[ 45 ] 



HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' EYES 

Then, too, there is a rich field in the ideal scenes, from 
the hands and hearts of the great painters. All the 
Bible, from cover to cover, has been pictured on the 
canvases of the masters, and photographs or half-tone 
engravings of these works of art, colored or black and 
white, may be bought for a trifle. Gather all you can 
of these. Do not rest with Raphael's picture of an 
event, for it is of great interest to see how Murillo also 
viewed it, and Botticelli, and Rembrandt, and Plock- 
horst, and Hofmann. Get a few neat frames with 
movable backs, in which these pictures can be placed, 
behind glass, for effective exhibition. You will thus 
draw to your side, as assistant teachers, some of the 
mightiest men the world has seen. Will it not be well 
worth while? 

Of course, in your wise zeal for these home-made 
collections, you will not neglect the illustrated books 
where such collections are ready to your hand. Not to 
speak of the superb works of Bore and Tissot and Bida, 
there are many less expensive books of recent publica- 
tion, such as Farrar's " Christ in Art," Mrs. Clement's 
" Heroines of the Bible in Art," Dr. Barton's " Life of 
Christ," Howard's " Story of a Young Man," and " Ian 
Maclaren's " " Life of the Master." There are innu- 
merable volumes of travel in the Holy Land, and most 
of these are well illustrated. Such books, open at the 
proper pictures and passed around the class, will happily 
illuminate many a lesson. 

Larger classroom pictures are not to be forgotten — 
if you are lucky enough to have a classroom in which 
to put them! They should be changed every quarter, 
and should fit the quarter's lessons. After they have 
served their purpose in the classroom they may be 
loaned to the scholars, and will accomplish a second 
blessed service in their homes. Sometimes a most in- 

[ 46 ] 



HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' EYES 

teresting frieze of smaller pictures may be accumulated 
in the classroom, and the teacher will be amazed to see 
how often he and the scholars refer to them. Even if 
the class has no room, but is housed only in a church 
pew, the teacher may clamp the picture for the quarter 
to the pew back, and gain all the advantages that I have 
pointed out. 

You will not wish to neglect the art of the sculptor, 
either. You can obtain photographs or half-tone pic- 
tures of the great statues like Angelo's Moses. You may 
be fortunate enough to own miniature copies of these 
works. And thus you will add another great realm to 
your pedagogical domain. 

But, as I have intimated, the teacher will be his own 
artist, however widely he may draw upon the artistic 
work of the world, and however little skill he may have 
in any other kind of drawing. To that end, he will own 
a blackboard. The most useful is the flexible black- 
board, that can be rolled up and carried home. A valu- 
able adjunct is a permanent board fixed to the wall, 
especially if a second board is hinged to it, so that 
hidden drawings may be disclosed, and more surface 
be available for work. These blackboards can be 
bought at a low price, or easily made. They can be 
fastened to a pew, if your class meets in a church 
auditorium. 

Lacking a blackboard, use any board upon which 
you have tacked a lot of large sheets of paper. Tear 
them off and throw them away as you are through with 
them. You can even get good results from an ordinary 
pencil-tablet, held up before the class or used on a table 
in the center of bobbing heads. Don't give up for lack 
of an equipment. 

Every lesson should be summarized, in some simple 
way, to the eye. This eye summary should take con- 

[ 47 ] 



HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' EYES 

stantly varying forms. For instance, the story of 
Zacchseus : 

Curiosity. 

Pride. 

Repentance. 

Purpose. 
Has Christ come to your house ? 

Those four words written in a bold hand as the in- 
cident is developed, and that question, dashed off as a 
clincher at the end, will add eye emphasis to your 
teaching. Or, a little more elaborately, perhaps: 

A Little Man. 
A Great Guest. 
A Great Reform. 

Or, still more elaborately, a crooked line representing 
Zacchseus' crooked life. This is changed, as the lesson 
proceeds, into the crooked bough on which Zacchseus 
climbed. Then an eye appears below, and a straight 
ray flashes from the eye along the crooked bough. You 
rub the bough out, as the climax of the story is reached, 
and draw a straight life-line, parallel to the straight line 
from the eye of the Master. 

The making of charts is a high art. In no way can 
history be more accurately and impressively presented 
than by a well-constructed chart. By the study of pub- 
lished charts as he gets sight of them, and by determined 
practise, the teacher may attain this art himself. 

All our lessons may be made subjects of charts, — 
not merely the lists of kings, the events of Christ's life 
and of Paul's, the genealogy of David, but lessons that 
no one ever thought of charting. Is it a parable? 
Classify the parables, and assign to its proper group the 
one you are studying. Is it a miracle ? Do the same. 
Is it a bit of biography or history? Make a table of 

[ 48 ] 



HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' EYES 

events. Is it a section of an epistle or prophecy? 
Analyze it in tabular form. 

It is my favorite custom, in teaching a lesson, to place 
before the class a large sheet of manila paper, upon 
which is printed, in the biggest of clear, black letters, a 
complete outline of the lesson I wish to teach, — every 
point of fact to be discussed, every difficulty to be solved, 
every truth to be brought out. The class see the work 
before them, and gird their minds to accomplish it. 
They watch the progress of affairs. They note where 
I am, and have an interest in seeing me arrive at the 
goal, and in getting there with me. Sometimes this 
lesson brief may be covered with sheets of blank paper 
and gradually disclosed. Sometimes a series of ques- 
tions may take its place, each on a separate sheet, and 
only one question in view at a time. Generally, however, 
the entire outline may best be disclosed at the start. 

I have already described in these chapters what I 
may call " diagrams of action " — series of exceedingly 
simple picturings of events in which short lines of dif- 
ferent colors represent men, and the crudest outlines 
are kindly accepted by the children's accommodating 
fancy as boats, houses, thrones, and dungeons. If the 
teacher can really draw well, he has a marvelous aid. 
If he cannot draw at all, still let him draw! Probably 
also I have said enough about the use of sketch maps, 
those invaluable instruments which the wide-awake 
teacher will turn to any number of surprising uses. 

Just a word as to the value of color. Even if your 
appeal to the eye is to be only three words, those words 
will be more certainly remembered if they are red, white, 
and blue! The teacher will revel in all the hues ob- 
tainable, of chalk, pencil, ink, and even paint, and will 
learn to use colors harmoniously, so that eyes may be 
trained as well as minds. 

[49] 



HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' EYES 

And a word, in closing, about object-teaching, so- 
called. I believe heartily in the use of objects when 
they are the genuine articles, or good copies of them, or 
even such copies as the scholars themselves may make. 
Every bit of real matter from the Holy Land that the 
teacher can show the class is a wonderful enrichment 
of the lessons. Nowadays one can easily get pressed 
flowers from Palestine, cones from the cedars of 
Lebanon, such a husk as the prodigal hungered for, 
the dress of a Syrian girl, a shepherd's rod and staff, a 
wooden plow, a bit of rock from Mars Hill, the model 
of an ancient roll, or lamp, or clay cylinder, or the 
seven-branched candlestick. 

With the use of objects less natural and genuine I 
have little sympathy — such objects, I mean, as a sil- 
vered pasteboard star to " illustrate " the Christmas 
lesson, or a stuffed dove to " vivify " the account of 
Christ's baptism, or a little cloth bag to " represent " 
the journeys of Joseph's brothers after corn. All such 
artificial contrivances are to be classed with the Sunday- 
school rebuses, acrostics, and other blackboard acro- 
batics whose day is happily passing. 

The purpose of the appeal to the eye is to win and 
hold attention, to be sure; but it is also to teach some 
truth. And if the eye work does not teach, or teaches 
an untruth, to what end is the attention, however eager 
it may be ? But the teacher who uses the scholars' eyes 
wisely and well has thrown out a new hook, draws the 
scholars with a fresh and strong bond. 

Every lesson can make such an appeal, if not in one 
way, then in another; if not by a picture, then by an 
object, or a chart, or a diagram, or by a sentence printed 
or written. For every truth there is somewhere an Eye- 
gate. Let the teacher give himself no rest until he 
finds it. 

[50] 



VII 

HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' EARS 

It is always hard for the wise teacher to know how 
much he should talk. Undoubtedly most teachers talk 
too much; I have never seen a teacher that talked too 
little. 

Monologue gives a pleasing sensation of teaching, but 
dialogue alone is likely to produce the fine reality. It 
is easy to harangue, to lecture and exhort, and classes 
may be kept together by that process; they are kept 
together, but they are not advanced. 

The farmer uses plough and harrow and hoe; he plants 
the seed and cultivates the young shoots. The greater 
part of the farm work, however, is done by the growing 
things themselves; and the farmer's work is only to put 
them where they can grow, remove the hindrances to 
their growth, and bring to them the food they need. A 
farm will do more work in a spring day than the farmer 
in a year. 

The true teacher is like the farmer. His words are 
like the seed. His own work is to get the seed into the 
scholar's mind, and to stir up that mind and stimulate 
it that it may respond with a harvest, thirty words for 
his one word, or sixty words, or a hundred. He is so 
to use his scholars' ears that they may use their brains 
and their tongues; no more. 

Questions, Good and Bad 

Therefore the teacher's most valuable tool is the 
question. A question is a direct challenge to thought. 

[51 ] 



HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' EARS 

It is a demand for expression. It is to the mind what 
the cultivator is to the field — it lets in the air, the sun- 
light, and the rain. The teacher who has become 
master of the interrogation-point is all but master of 
the pedagogic art. 

But the interrogation point is a crooked little affair, 
not at all easy to master. Some kinds of questions are 
no better than flat declarative sentences. One of these 
is the leading question, that puts the answer into the 
scholar's mouth: " Rehoboam was a king of Judah, 
wasn't he, Tom ? " That question makes no demand 
whatever upon Tom's mind. Another false question 
is the one that can be answered by " yes " or " no ": 
" Did Solomon's Temple face the east, Jennie ? " That 
lassie's curly head is not much troubled to find the 
appropriate monosyllable. Still a third variety of 
profitless question is the one that is fired pointblank 
into the air, vaguely addressed to no one in particular. 
And it gets the answer a letter would get if addressed 
the same way. 

No; questions should usually — not always — be ad- 
dressed to individuals. In adult classes it should be 
understood that no one will be questioned until he has 
given consent to the process, but the teacher will seek 
constantly to enlarge this list of active members. In 
younger classes all should be questioned by name, save 
when it is best to unify interest by presenting a query 
to the entire class. 

Questions should be well considered, more carefully 
planned than any other feature of the teacher's prepara- 
tion. While gaining the questioner's art, it will be 
labor well bestowed to write out a set of questions every 
Sunday. These questions should be varied, brisk, 
pointed, couched in natural terms. " For what classes 
of persons does the Fourth Commandment prescribe a 

[52] 



HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' EARS 

Sabbath rest ? " That's poor. " Who does the Fourth 
Commandment say should rest on Sunday? " That's 
better. " What future event was Christ anticipating 
when he enjoined his disciples to * watch ' ? " Wretched. 
" Christ told his disciples to ' watch.' And why ? " 
That's not so bad. 



Clear Statements 

It would be easy to fill the entire chapter with a dis- 
cussion of this important matter of questions, but I 
must pass on to another branch of the teacher's art 
only second in importance, and that is the faculty of 
clear statements. A confused, unmethodical and 
awkward presentation of facts and principles is like 
an impediment in the outlet pipe of a cistern; it 
renders largely nugatory whatever fulness of inform- 
ation and earnestness of purpose may crowd the 
reservoir back of it. And more teachers are thus 
afflicted than realize it. 

The remedy, and the only remedy, is practise. No 
teacher can be sure of his lesson till he has rehearsed it. 
He should go over the points he wishes to make till the 
order of them is fixed in his mind. He should repeat 
to himself the leading statements till he is certain that 
he can express them forcibly and with crystal clearness. 
No stupid committing to memory, of course, but a 
persistent committing to mind. 

The test of the statement is the question, and no 
teacher can be at all sure that he is understood till he 
has received back from his scholars what he has been 
telling them, and in such wise as to indicate their com- 
prehension of it. Thus their statement tests his state- 
ment, as the answer of a sum in arithmetic proves or 
disproves the process. 

[53] 



HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' EARS 



How to Tell a Story 

I rank third in the essentials of the teacher's art, the 
ability to tell a story. By telling a story I do not mean 
merely the giving of a complete narrative, but the 
picturesque presentation of any fact or truth. There is 
a dull way of saying anything and there is a sparkling 
way. Teachers that teach must learn the sparkling 
way. 

For instance: " A dream came to Pilate's wife as a 
divine message, telling her that Jesus was an innocent 
man, and that Pilate ought not to put him to death. 
Therefore she sent word to her husband about the 
dream, and urged him to spare Jesus." That is the 
dull way. Try it thus : " Pilate's wife woke up with a 
start. Her mind was full of a horror, at first she didn't 
know what. She groped around in her mind, and at 
last, bit by bit, it all came back to her. She had been 
dreaming of Jesus. She had seen that wonderful face 
more than once during the past week. She had heard 
some of the wonderful words that fell from his lips. 
And in her dream she had seen that face, so loving, so 
heroic, so godlike, with streams of blood flowing from 
the forehead and down the cheeks. Still trembling from 
her dream, she called a Jewish attendant. ' Miriam/ 
she asked, eagerly, ' what's the latest word about Jesus, 
that Galilean, you know ? ' " Thus the story will 
proceed. 

The basis of picturesque statement, as of clear state- 
ment, is full and accurate knowledge. You must be 
quite at home in the event and with the characters. 
You must know what clothes were worn, what sort of 
houses were entered, what utensils were used. These 
details must be so familiar as to come readily to mind 
when wanted. You are to give the impression of a 

[54 ] 



HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' EARS 

bystander, eagerly telling what he has seen with his 
own eyes and heard with his own ears. 

But every kind and amount of information is dead 
without imagination. The godlike faculty of the poet 
must be present also in the teacher. He must be able 
to put himself back in Bible times, and see and hear and 
breathe in them. It is partly a matter of sympathy 
with characters and truths, and it is partly a matter of 
brooding over them. It is like the practise required for 
clear statement. He must rehearse in his fancy, over 
and over, the series of events, " playing " this, guessing 
that, each time piercing a little more deeply into possi- 
bilities, until the story is his as if he had lived it; until, 
to all purposes, he has lived it. Then he can tell it, and 
be convincing. 

Nor let it be forgotten that abstract truths, as well as 
the events of the past, must be clothed in this garb of 
imagination if they are to lay hold upon the children's 
interest. The teacher is to see pictures in every cloud. 
Abstract truth, remember, is just as true when con- 
cretely presented. " If a man asks for your shirt, give 
him your coat too "; that way of putting it is perfect 
ethics as well as engaging imagery. How much weaker 
would have been the hold upon men if Christ had said, 
" In responding to people's demands, the dictates of 
brotherly love require a willing surrender of even more 
than is demanded "! 

The test of this story-telling, of this picturesque pres- 
entation of truth, is precisely the same as the test of 
the clearness of one's unadorned statements. If the 
children can give you back your picture, then you have 
made them see it, and not otherwise. The equivalent 
of the question must try your work, here as everywhere, 
and prove of what sort it is. 

[55] 



HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' EARS 



Making the Teaching Count 

There is one other element in the teacher's appeal to 
the ears of his scholars that is essential in all wise teach- 
ing, — the application to modern life, and especially to 
their life. Much teaching stops nineteen centuries back. 
In the minds of many pupils the parable of The Sower 
has no more relation to their own conduct than the 
fable of Romulus and the wolf. David kills Goliath 
without leaving them a whit the stronger to slay their 
giants, and Moses crosses the Red Sea without giving 
them the least lift over their troubles. It is information, 
interesting information, but not inspiration. 

The teacher that would teach must never study a 
lesson alone. Always his scholars must be present 
before him, vividly and individually. " Ah, Lizzie, 
here's a bit for you! " he must say, delighted. ' Yes; 
and, Theodore, this must have been put in expressly 
for you." 

These applications to the scholars' lives must be made 
with superb tact. Sometimes each scholar may be 
asked to pick out from the lesson some thought that 
comes closest to his own life, and tell it to the class, or 
write it down and hand it to the teacher. Sometimes 
the teacher himself may write it down, and give it, as a 
sacred personal letter, to the scholar. Always it is the 
climax of the lesson, never to be omitted, though, per- 
haps, never to be dwelt upon long. 

As the scholars' intelligence and interests widen out, 
so these applications will enlarge themselves and multi- 
ply, taking in history, society, business, and reaching 
to the ends of the earth. All, however, will have the 
same end, the end of life, the purpose to exhibit the 
Bible as a living volume, as true to the needs of to-day 
as of b. c. 1000, and as vital for America as for Judea. 

[56 ] 



HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' EARS 

So that, as the Bible is all-embracing in its relations, 
Bible teaching is the most comprehensive branch of 
education. The Sunday-school teacher finds no knowl- 
edge amiss, and he is constantly stimulated to explore 
new realms of science, literature, art, and experience. 
The teacher who really teaches the Bible has for his 
theme the earth and heavens, things animate and inani- 
mate, things visible and invisible, time and eternity! 



57] 



VIII 
HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' TONGUES 

The scholars' tongues are far more important than 
the teacher's. The one severe and constant problem 
of the wise teacher is how to get his scholars to talking 
wisely. This is because back of wise talk is knowledge 
and thought, and back of knowledge and thought must 
be study. 

Many teachers are satisfied, or at any rate seem satis- 
fied, with studying themselves, while they get no study 
from their classes. Their lessons are like sunlight fall- 
ing on a mirror instead of on the soil, being merely re- 
flected back instead of springing up in growing life. It 
is not what the teacher gives out that counts, but what 
he gets back; and he must so give out as to get back 
the thing that counts. 

And therefore the wise teacher must plan every lesson, 
having two things in view: first, his own work; second, 
his scholars' work, and how to get it. The second half 
is rarely considered at all, and yet it is in no way less 
important than the first. 

You cannot get home study save by setting definite 
tasks. The fundamental method is to fix a program 
for it, one which each scholar will keep in his Bible, 
neatly written or printed, and will follow faithfully till 
it becomes second nature. This program, which must 
fit all lessons, will be something like the following: 

1. Review the last lesson, recalling its chief events 
and most important teachings. 

2. Read rapidly the portion of the Bible intervening 

[58] 



HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' TONGUES 

between the last lesson and the present, and note the 
happenings. 

3. Read the lesson text. 

4. Ask yourself whether all its expressions, allusions, 
and thoughts are perfectly clear, and mark those that 
are not. 

5. Read whatever lesson commentary you have, and 
cross off the difficulties that it solves. 

6. Ask yourself these questions: When did the events 
of the lesson occur ? Where ? What persons were in- 
volved in them? What were the events? What are 
the teachings for your life and for the modern world ? 

7. Finally, perform the special task that may be as- 
signed you in connection with the lesson. 

This program the teacher should go over with his 
scholars until he is sure that they understand every part 
of it thoroughly. Nay, he should sit down beside each 
one of them, in their homes or his own, and study les- 
sons with them until he is certain that they know how 
to study in the best way. At such times, too, the teacher 
will show the scholar how to use the concordance, the 
Bible index or text cyclopedia, the Bible atlas, and the 
Bible dictionary. Comparatively few scholars in our 
schools, it is to be feared, have a firm grasp of the 
splendid tools for Bible research that are within the 
easy reach of all; and the teacher is the one to instruct 
in the use of them. 

The teacher that would get real work from his scholars 
must give them very simple tasks. Remember that they 
are beginners; and remember, too, how little time you 
can count upon. Very small gains in Bible knowledge, 
if the teacher sees that they are actually made, and made 
steadily week after week, mount up surprisingly in the 
course of years. Such a task might be, for instance, 
the learning in chronological order of the events in 

[59] 



HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' TONGUES 

Christ's life, taken one a week. Or, you might set out 
to imprint upon the scholars' minds the characteristics 
of a single great man as brought out, one at a time, in a 
series of lessons. Or, your goal might be a knowledge 
of a single Bible biography, or the outline of a single 
book of the Bible, each week bringing its written para- 
phrase of a chapter, or original title for that chapter. 

These home tasks, as already indicated, should be 
made cumulative; they should possess a serial interest; 
they should be complete, as far as they go. Set up as 
a goal that the class shall know in order all the leading 
facts in Christ's life, or an entire outline of John's 
Gospel, or every parable on a certain theme, or a full 
sketch of Jewish history, or all the Bible passages bear- 
ing on temperance. The air of finality will please the 
scholars. Their ambition will be excited. They will 
have zest for their task, as for something manifestly 
worth while. 

This home study should be linked to the work in the 
class, and thus both will be stimulated. There are 
many ways of doing this. For example, the verses may 
be assigned to different scholars, each to prepare a set 
of questions on his verse, which the teacher will use in 
the class. Or, each will study with a view to teaching 
the lesson to his comrades, it being decided by lot just 
which one shall have that honor. Each may be asked 
to prepare some diagram illustrating the lesson, or ar- 
range a chart for a series of lessons. Topics for brief 
essays bearing on the lesson may be distributed. Para- 
phrases of the lesson text may be written. A life of 
some Bible character may be constructed, a chapter a 
week. Large portions of Scripture may be committed 
to memory at home and recited in the class. A class 
debate may be arranged on some question suited to the 
lesson such as, " Which was the greater man, Moses or 

[60] 



HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' TONGUES 

Paul ? " " Were Joseph's measures regarding Egyptian 
grain just and wise ? " " Which was the most wonder- 
ful miracle ? " " Which is the most helpful parable ? " 

Besides debates, there are many varieties of contests 
that may be carried on in the class, greatly to the benefit 
of home study. One of these is a question tournament, 
the class being divided into " sides," which fire lesson 
queries at each other. Another fashion of question 
tournament is conducted like a spelling-match, the 
teacher being the questioner. Or, the questions, written 
upon slips, may be drawn in turn by the two sides, the 
slip becoming the property of the side that answers the 
question. The members of each side should study 
together in preparation for the tournament. 

Among the tasks to which the scholars may be set 
as a part of their home study is the writing of lesson 
stories. For instance, if the lesson is the crossing of 
the Red Sea, you may ask one scholar to prepare some 
such narrative of the events as might be written by a 
soldier in Pharaoh's army. Others might write out the 
same story in the character of an Egyptian farmer who 
watched the events from the hill, or a Hebrew boy who 
was among the hosts that Moses led along that wonder- 
ful way. On another occasion, if your class is old 
enough and daring enough, you may ask them to write 
out the lesson in rhyme. At still another time, have the 
scholars prepare " lesson condensations," — the lesson 
events being packed into ten words; or " characteriza- 
tions," — the persons of the lesson being described in a 
series of pen-pictures. Sometimes you may divide the 
characters among the scholars, telling one pupil to come 
ready to answer all questions relating to Elijah; a second, 
all relating to Ahab; others, those concerning Jezebel, 
Obadiah, Mount Carmel, or the priests of Baal. Some- 
times you may distribute a set of questions on the lesson 

[61] 



HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' TONGUES 

prepared in duplicate, as a guide for home study. A 
brisk way to use such a set of questions in the class 
would be to number them and then to have the scholars 
draw by lot a series of numbered slips, each number 
indicating that its bearer is to answer the corresponding 
question when the teacher asks it. It will be observed 
that the real goal of all these plans is the home study for 
which they call, but the special incentive to home study 
is the requirement that some definite results of it shall 
be brought to the class and exhibited before the other 
scholars. 

Whatever considerations emphasize the importance of 
the scholars' tongues in ordinary lessons are of double 
weight in the matter of reviews. The review is more 
than a repetition of old lessons. Reviewing is renewing. 
It vitalizes the whole series of lessons by putting them 
in touch with one another, into just relations with one 
another. A review is a wider view of old views. It is 
the mountain-top survey after we have trudged pain- 
fully up from the valley. 

Reviews are always delightful if they follow thorough 
preparation. It is a joy to tell what one knows. And 
yet even with the best of teaching and studying in or- 
dinary lessons the reviews call for some new methods 
if they are to be successful in the highest degree. If, 
for example, you have been learning in order the events 
of Christ's life, review them by numbered pins fastened 
in the proper places on a map. If you have been study- 
ing Christ's journeys by tracing them on the map, review 
by describing them orally; or by giving word-pictures 
of the scenes, the class naming each place as you describe 
it. 

Each review, while it takes a fair survey of the chief 
points of the lessons, may well have a specialty of its 
own, and a distinctive name. You may announce a 

[ 62 ] 



HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' TONGUES 

" problem review," based largely upon the knottiest 
questions that have come up during the quarter. Or, a 
" character review," chiefly devoted to characterizations 
of the persons of the quarter, and questions tracing each 
in turn through all the lessons. Or, an " essay review," 
each scholar presenting a brief essay on some theme so 
comprehensive as to call for a study of all the quarter's 
lessons. Or, a " picture review," the scholars being 
confronted, one after the other, with a series of pictures 
illustrating the quarter's lessons, and being required to 
give five facts about each. Or, an " applications re- 
view," the lessons being surveyed with an eye especially 
to their bearing on modern life. 

Finally, a word about examinations. I feel strongly 
about this matter. The failure of our Sunday-school 
teachers to test their work is responsible for most of the 
weaknesses of our schools. It is here that we are chiefly 
and markedly inferior to secular schools. Teachers 
everywhere are cheating themselves into the belief that 
they have taught and scholars are cheating themselves 
into the belief that they have learned, when the most 
simple of honest tests would expose the lamentable 
failure of the one and ignorance of the other. 

The teacher that really teaches will not rest satisfied 
till he has proved to himself that he has taught and to 
his scholars that they have learned. Examinations will 
be a matter of course in his class. Sometimes they will 
be oral, a careful record being kept of the success or 
failure of each scholar; more often they will be written. 
They will be very frequent, sometimes occurring every 
week. That they may be frequent, he will generally 
use questions that, while searching, can be answered 
perfectly in very few words. These questions will be 
framed very carefully, and of course they will be written 
out in advance. The scholars will be given no hint 

[63] 



HOW HE USES HIS SCHOLARS' TONGUES 

what questions are to be asked, but the examination 
will be an honest attempt of the teacher to discover the 
state of the scholars' knowledge, and of the scholars to 
reveal it. 

Such recitations as I have outlined, attended by such 
examinations, will certainly advance the scholars in 
Bible knowledge. They will " know, and know that 
they know." Bible knowledge is the basis of all joy, 
and this certainty of Bible knowledge affords a sure 
foundation for character and happiness, here and here- 
after. 



[ 64 J 



IX 
HOW HE WINS HIS SCHOLARS' HEARTS 

There are what I call " body teachers," teachers 
whose entire ideal, or at least their total achievement, is 
to keep the bodies of their scholars still while they propel 
sound-waves against their ears. 

And there are what I call " head teachers," teachers 
whose aim is solely to impress certain facts upon their 
scholars' memories, press them in and clinch them on 
the other side, while they make no effort to influence 
their scholars' lives. 

And there is a third class; I call them "heart teachers." 
These teachers may or may not accomplish what the 
first two sets of teachers accomplish, but one thing at 
any rate they do: they win the admiration and love of 
their scholars, and profoundly influence their purposes 
and characters. 

Now the last is the only real kind of teachers. Even 
in the army, where the old ideal of a soldier was merely 
of an obedient machine with thought and personality 
eliminated, they have come rather to prefer warriors 
with heads. In our colleges, though still in some in- 
stitutions a fine intellect is considered the ultimate good, 
and everywhere in the educational world, they are com- 
ing to see that manhood is more than mathematics and 
life than languages. How much more, then, is the 
heart teacher needed in Sunday-schools, whose aim is 
eternity, whose ideal is that character which alone means 
happiness for eternity! 

This heart teaching is more than the winning of in,- 
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HOW HE WINS HIS SCHOLARS' HEARTS 

terest, which has already been treated in these chapters. 
The topic is akin to that, and involves a repetition of 
some of the principles there adduced; but it goes far 
deeper. It has to do with a permanent relation of 
which that is only the beginning. Many teachers win 
interest that do not win hearts. Often they are con- 
tented, but they never should be. 

With some teachers this winning of hearts is easy, 
instinctive. They are not obliged to plan for it or even 
to think about it. One may say that they cannot help 
it. Often they cannot control the wriggling bodies and 
tongues of their pupils. Often they do not give wise 
instruction or instruction that endures. But the scholars 
love them, and imitate their beautiful characters, and 
so they do immense good. One would wish them to be 
body teachers and head teachers as well as heart teach- 
ers, but if they do their best along these lines, all honor 
to them, and heaven send them to teach my child! 

With other teachers this winning of hearts is the hard- 
est part of their Sunday-school work. They love chil- 
dren, but children do not " take to " them. They love, 
but they do not understand how to win love; they are 
not " made up " that way. This is a most unfortunate 
and grievous condition. Such teachers have a Tantalus 
experience: their lips repel where they would kiss. This 
chapter is primarily for them; though it will be useful 
also, I hope, to the first class, in pointing out helpful 
ways of associating themselves with their scholars' lives. 

The first suggestion I would make is, Know your 
scholars. If they do not seek you, still do you seek 
them, and persistently. Visit their homes assiduously. 
Begin by getting as close as possible to their parents. 
This kind of teacher can often win adults more easily 
than children. Often leave behind you, on these visits, 
some pleasant reminder. It may be a little cake, or a 

[ 66] 



HOW HE WINS HIS SCHOLARS' HEARTS 

flower, or a loaned story-book. You have taken a long 
step when the children have come to associate you with 
happy experiences. 

The sicknesses of your scholars, disagreeable enough 
for them, you may turn decidedly to your own advan- 
tage, and ultimately to theirs. Then is the time of all 
times to visit them. Never are they so easily won. 
Your attentions will reach their hearts, — your thought- 
fulness in coming, the fruit you bring, and bright jellies, 
and jolly pictures to look at, the stories you read to 
them, and, as the little patient convalesces, the counter- 
pane games you play together. Yes, indeed; then is 
the wise teacher's chance. 

Having come as close as you can to your scholars at 
their homes, try your own. Do not give them a general 
invitation to visit you, for they will not come; invite 
them for a definite afternoon or evening. Invite them 
all together at first, since some will be too bashful to 
come alone. Three forms of entertainment will be your 
staples. First, of course, good things to eat and drink, 
for palate popularity with children is the easiest ap- 
proach to heart popularity. I do not say how it is with 
adults! Second, singing; and you will need a supply 
of merry song-books, enough to go around. Third, 
games : outdoor sports and indoor sports of all innocent 
kinds; and every wise teacher of children will be an 
encyclopedia of these. Add to this some little token of 
love given to each at parting, and you will have made a 
very attractive niche for yourself in their memories. 

After they have come to your house in a body often 
enough to feel at home there, you may begin to invite 
them separately, and thus take another step nearer 
them. To avoid jealousies, let it be understood that 
all are to receive this honor, in turn. It is an especially 
good plan, as I have already said, to invite them thus 

[67] 



HOW HE WINS HIS SCHOLARS' HEARTS 

singly for the purpose of studying the next lesson with 
them, always crowning the study hour with some 
especially jolly time. 

And let me say emphatically that any good time that 
you and your scholars can enjoy together will strongly 
contribute to win for you the fun-loving hearts of the 
children. Take the class off, quite frequently, on hila- 
rious excursions. The goal may be a museum, full of 
objects that throw light on the Sunday-school lessons. 
It may be a public library, whose workings you want to 
show to the scholars, to interest them in books. It may 
be some historical spot, — an Indian mound, a battle- 
field, the home of Paul Revere or of Alice Cary. It may 
be some point of scientific interest, — a quarry full of 
fossils, the woods where certain rare flowers are found, 
a gravel bank with a boulder full of garnets. It may 
be a glass factory, or a watch factory, or a woolen mill, 
or a paper mill, or a ropewalk. It may be a pedestrian 
tour for exploring the country; and if you can go on 
bicycles, so much the merrier. 

One could fill a book with plans for good times with 
Sunday-school classes ! Think of the delectable picnics 
you may enjoy, the sprightly athletic contests with other 
classes, the tennis tournaments, the river outings, the 
Hallowe'en parties, and the other seasonable festivities 
of the jovial year! I cannot tarry for particulars, nor 
is it necessary, since there are so many books that are 
helpful here. Perhaps I have written enough to em- 
phasize my conviction that teachers should play with 
their scholars as well as pray for them. 

Another mode of approach to scholars is through the 
post-office. Letters have not become to the children 
the commonplace affairs they are with us. To a boy or 
girl, a letter is an event; and the shrewd person who has 
written it is at once placed on a pedestal in their regard. 

[68 ] 



HOW HE WINS HIS SCHOLARS' HEARTS 

There are many occasions for letters: when you go 
away on a visit; when they go away; tender letters on 
their birthdays; jubilant letters when they win honors 
in school or promotions in business; letters of loving 
sympathy and Christian consolation when their dear 
ones pass away; letters on the anniversary of their join- 
ing the class, or the church; letters to point out some 
truth, in the last lesson or the next one, that has especial 
pertinence for them. The wise teacher will be quick 
to seize upon any excuse for a letter to his scholar. 

These letters need not be long or elaborate; they need 
not take much time to write. The one essential is that 
they have the heart quality, since they are to reach 
hearts. " Let yourself out," in them; write your inner- 
most thoughts and hopes and prayers for the scholar. 
Those letters will be treasured, often, among the most 
precious possessions of the fortunate recipients. 

A still closer approach to your scholars' hearts may 
be made by private talks with them. Here is where 
many teachers blunder. Why is it that they cannot 
talk naturally with children ? Why do they think they 
must imitate a child's way of talking? Re yourself 
always, and most of all when talking to children. They 
are quick to feel any insincerity, and sure to resent it. 

And, in order to be yourself, talk of what really in- 
terests you. That is the only thing you can talk about 
interestingly. If you can get up an interest in what 
already interests the child to whom you are talking, so 
much the better; but at any rate you will be sure of your 
own interest. 

Don't be afraid of talking " over the heads " of the 
children, if only you talk simply and spiritedly. They 
understand far more than they are ordinarily credited 
with understanding; and the parts of your talk that are 
really a little over their heads they like to stand on tiptoe 

[ 69 ] 



HOW HE WINS HIS SCHOLARS' HEARTS 

after. Thus they grow; and thus, also, they are com- 
plimented, and proud. I shall never forget two talks 
I once heard Bronson Alcott give to a set of young folks. 
In the morning he talked to them on some themes of 
high philosophy, but in language crystal-clear. In the 
evening he talked familiarly and charmingly about his 
author friends in that wonderful town of Concord. 
Both talks were enjoyed, but the morning talk was en- 
joyed the most and remembered the best. In talking 
with boys and girls it is far better to be serious (though 
that is not at all necessary) than to be trifling. You 
will win their hearts most certainly by taking them with 
you to the deep places, and the high places, of life. 

Perhaps, however, when all is said, the matter most 
important for a teacher to consider, if he would win 
hearts, is his manner. Some manners are repugnant 
to children. There is the fussy teacher, whose nervous 
ways set the children's nerves a-quiver and stir up every 
tendency to mischief. There is the nagging teacher: 
" Johnny, how often must I tell you not to do that ? " 
" Lucy, what shall I do to you if you don't behave 
better ? " There is the timid teacher, secretly afraid of 
her young charges, who shuffles her papers, and bites 
her lips, and looks askance as she asks her questions. 
There is the goody-goody teacher, whose prim perfec- 
tions and staid exhortations affect the children like the 
atmosphere of an ice-house. There is the putty teacher, 
with limp form and expressionless face, so nearly devoid 
of character herself that the characterful children look 
upon her with mingled disdain and pity. If you belong 
to any of these sorts of teachers, you will try in vain to 
win the hearts of your scholars. 

The teacher that children love best is quite certain to 
be healthy, for the buoyant life of children cannot un- 
derstand physical weakness. He or she is quite certain 

[70] 



HOW HE WINS HIS SCHOLARS' HEARTS 

to dress well, and to deem a bright ribbon, a becoming 
necktie, a rose in the hair or the buttonhole, the means 
of grace they assuredly are. He is certain to laugh 
easily, and to carry smiling eyes. He is certain to be 
brisk and vivacious, not only in words, but where this 
alertness is most often lacking, in the muscles of the 
face. He loves the children, and so is never angry with 
them for their faults; he loves the children, and so never 
overlooks their faults. He is calm and confident in- 
wardly, and therefore outwardly. He is humble as a 
child. He is frank and bold as a child. He is aggres- 
sively individual as a child. The teacher that wins 
child hearts is all this. 

Now, if a teacher has a manner very different from 
this, can he change it ? His manner is the way he was 
born; can he make himself over? 

Yes, or Christianity is wrong in saying that we must 
be born again. Yes, or Christianity is wrong in bidding 
us to become as little children. 

We can watch the teachers that naturally or by train- 
ing win the children, and we can see how they do it. 

We can watch the children that are popular with other 
children, and see why they are popular. 

We can be much with the children, especially in their 
recreations. The teachers that are not winsome to 
children are those that play few games if any; their 
spirits are not recreated. 

We can study the kindergarten, and all good secular 
schools. If we cannot get their full training, we can 
at least visit them and observe their methods. 

We can watch the mothers, for a mother gets closest 
to the heart of a child. 

Above all, we can learn from the children's Christ. 
He will bestow upon us, as he comes to dwell in us, the 
splendid child qualities, — frankness, courage, calm- 

[ 71 ] 



HOW HE WINS HIS SCHOLARS' HEARTS 

ness, cheer, humility. The primal secret of hearts is 
with him, and only portions of it flash out here and there 
in the lives of his men and women. 

And ah, the glorious reward, when we have learned 
from Christ how to win the hearts of his children ! To 
have the dear young folk looking for you, clap hands 
and run as you appear, flock eagerly around you, drink 
in your words, quote you, copy your example, and fol- 
low you into the Kingdom! To win this glad result is 
worth all pains and persistence and prayer, even to the 
reconstruction of your life, the making over of your soul. 



[ ™ ] 



HOW HE LEADS HIS SCHOLARS TO CHRIST 

The primary purpose of Sunday-school teaching is 
to lead the scholars to Christ. Instruction in the Bible 
and in the conduct of life is always secondary until this 
first great aim has been accomplished. Failing in this, 
the true teacher is never satisfied, however much his 
scholars may have learned about the kings of Judah 
or the geography of Palestine. 

When the evangelistic purpose is thus made primary, 
it is never at the expense of the literary or historical 
study of the Bible. Indeed, that motive more than any- 
thing else will serve to vitalize facts and energize the 
teacher. The Bible will be studied eagerly and thor- 
oughly quite in proportion as the scholars are Christians, 
and the teacher will labor zealously quite in proportion 
as he labors to make his scholars Christians. 

Ah, but how to do it! The great majority of Sunday- 
school teachers, I am sure, ardently desire to accom- 
plish this end, but many of them shrink from the task 
in perplexity and fear. They feel weak and inexperi- 
enced. They are afraid of their scholars. The very 
tremendousness of the issue terrifies them. With the 
best intentions in the world, many a teacher neverthe- 
less pusillanimously allows this fundamental matter for 
years to go by default. 

In the first place, they are troubled by the question 
of time. There is a moment, they feel, when they 
might successfully urge the claims of the Saviour; but 
they do not recognize the moment. Or, they recognize 
it only to let it pass. 

[ 73 ] 



HOW HE LEADS HIS SCHOLARS TO CHRIST 

Such teachers need to act upon Paul's injunction, and 
boldly set themselves to do evangelistic work " in season 
and out of season." It is far better to hit the wrong 
time occasionally or even often, than never to hit the 
right time. Better make a mistake now and then than 
never make a convert. Often the blundering attempt 
to lead souls to Christ is more effective than the prac- 
tised efforts of a skilled evangelist. The person ad- 
dressed may be offended, but the offense will serve only 
to attach the plea more firmly to his memory. More 
often, indeed, the patent fact that the effort to win him 
to Christ is an awkward effort, put forth painfully and 
shrinkingly and at an unsuitable time, appeals to a 
scholar with peculiar force, and leads him in spite of 
himself to think more highly of a religion which thus 
impels its believers to do hard things for their Master. 

Some lessons, to be sure, adapt themselves beautifully 
to soul- winning, and others not nearly so well. It is 
better, of course, to use the appropriate lessons as bases 
of evangelistic appeals, other things being equal. But 
other things may not be equal. At some other time, 
when the lesson theme is not nearly so favorable, the 
hearts of your scholars may be manifestly impression- 
able. Then is the time to push for a decision, no matter 
what the subject of the lesson may be. 

Indeed, the teacher, if his mind is really bent on soul- 
winning, can apply to that great theme any lesson the 
International Committee proposes, and without forcing 
it. Gideon's band: Christ is ready to transform your 
weakness into power and victory. Are you on his side ? 
The fall of Jericho: Lay siege to your sins! Satan's 
fortress will fall, but not by might nor power; only by 
God's Spirit. Have you joined his army ? The crea- 
tion: Christ was in the beginning with God. Christ 
brought all things into existence. He can give you a 

[74 ] 



HOW HE LEADS HIS SCHOLARS TO CHRIST 

new birth, into a fresh, pure life that will be glad beyond 
your imagining. Will you not submit your life to his 
creative hand ? 

In urging you not to wait for lessons with distinctively 
evangelistic themes, and in insisting that all lessons may 
be turned to evangelistic account, I would not be under- 
stood as advocating the continual dwelling on this sub- 
ject. That would tire the scholars, and would seriously 
detract from the force of your appeal. It is far better 
to return to the charge after an intermission. The 
scholars will soon see how deeply you have at heart 
their spiritual welfare, and that you will never be satisfied 
till they become Christians. 

Seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit in this matter, 
more than in any other phase of your teaching. Be 
quick to take advantage of any special occasion for 
seriousness in your class, as from the death or dangerous 
illness of some comrade, or from some recent great 
disaster. If any discussion of a truth seems to reach 
unusual depths in your scholars' souls, be quick to 
plant there the seeds of salvation. 

With all this readiness to take advantage of unex- 
pected opportunities, the wise teacher will also bestir 
himself, and make opportunities. He will plan for evan- 
gelistic work, and this planning will render him all the 
readier for the unexpected chances when they come. 

He will note the lessons ahead, perceiving which are 
likely to give him the best evangelistic openings. Thus 
he will form an evangelistic schedule, a list of Sundays 
when he will make definite pleas and look for definite 
results. He will work up to these lessons by brief 
suggestions, dropped here and there in preceding 
lessons. In preparation for them he will go so far as 
to write out the questions he will ask to lead up to 
the great confession; like these, perhaps: "What is 

[ 75 ] 



HOW HE LEADS HIS SCHOLARS TO CHRIST 

our Sunday-school for, Jennie ? What is its real pur- 
pose, after all? To teach the Bible? Yes; and what 
more? To teach about God? Yes; and what is the 
chief fact about God that the Bible discloses ? His 
love for men? Yes; and how did God show that? 
What do you think, Thomas? Do you agree, John? 
What did Christ do for the world to show it God's 
love, Richard ? Yes, he died for the sins of the world; 
and does that include you, Lucy ? Yes, if you accept 
him as your Saviour, if you trust him and love him and 
intend to obey him in all things. And you do, do you 
not, Fred ? And you, Susan ? And you ? And you ? " 

They may have questions to ask. Imagine what they 
will be. Perhaps: " How can I be sure that I love 
Christ ? " " How could Christ die for my sins ? " 
" What is it to be a Christian ? " " Why can't I be 
just as good a Christian outside the church as in it ? " 
Think of all these questions you can, and form for each 
the most convincing reply you can. Go over in your 
fancy the entire conversation. It would greatly aid 
clearness of thought and force of expression if you 
would write it all down. It is quite impossible to plan 
too carefully or with too much painstaking. 

In carrying out your plan, do not be afraid either of 
your theme or of your scholars. Your fear will inspire 
in them both timidity before you and shrinking from 
the subject. Approach the matter in an easy, familiar 
way that at the same time may be very earnest. Ear- 
nestness need not be oppressive solemnity, and easy 
friendliness is very different from triviality. You are 
seeking to introduce your dearest heavenly Friend to 
your young friends on earth. There is nothing tragic 
in that proceeding! You are inviting your scholars to 
enter a palace, to sit down at a feast, to view and possess 
forever a gallery of lovely pictures, to hear splendid 

[76] 



HOW HE LEADS HIS SCHOLARS TO CHRIST 

music, to accept a rich inheritance of wealth. Get the 
ringing voice, get the happy face, that you would have 
if you were actually doing these things in the infinitely 
lower worldly sphere. 

Appeal to the heroism of this scholar and that. Urge 
him to be the first of his class to start in the Christian 
life, or the first at this particular time. Press upon him 
the thought of the great good he may do by thus setting 
the example. It will be something of which to be 
proud forever! 

Arrange for private talks with your scholars. Send 
for them by letter to come to your house in turn. Or 
take walks with them by appointment. Do not appear 
to take them by guile, but tell them what you want to 
discuss. 

Write letters to your scholars, urging them to become 
Christians. Write letters to all of them, but write to 
each a different letter, a letter so full of personal touches 
as manifestly to be intended for him alone. These 
letters will always be cherished. You will hear from 
them years afterwards, if not immediately. Request an 
answer, however, — a letter in reply, or an opportunity 
to talk the matter over; or tell them that you intend to 
present the subject to the class at the next meeting, and 
urge them to give you an answer then, orally. The 
post-office may be made an efficient assistant teacher in 
all our Sunday-school classes, and in no point is it more 
helpful than in evangelism. 

These letters should be frank, coming boldly to the 
central theme, and not beating about the bush. They 
should be bright and cheery. They should be con- 
fident, treating the scholars as those that are already 
Christ's dear children, and need only a word to bring 
them to open confession. 

For example: "Dear Tom: There's something I've 
[ 77 ] 



HOW HE LEADS HIS SCHOLARS TO CHRIST 

been wanting for some time to talk over with you, but 
I haven't had a very good chance, so I thought I'd call 
in the aid of Uncle Sam's mail-bag. I think the time 
has come for you to join the church. You think so too, 
don't you? I know you love our dear Redeemer. I 
know you understand what he has done for you, and is 
doing for you all the time. I know you want to do his 
will. And I know you understand that part of his will 
for you is that you confess him before men. You want 
to be a manly man, a courageous man, and I do not 
think you will let any unmanly timidity keep you from 
doing your duty. You want to see yourself on the side 
of all that is heroic and pure, and against all that is weak 
and corrupting. And you know that that side is the 
Church of Christ. You certainly mean to fake this step 
of church-membership sometime. Why put it off? 
Hasn't Christ a right to all your life, and a right to have 
it at its best ? You may have some difficulty. If you 
have, tell me what it is, and I will show you how to 
remove it. But I hope you will write at once and tell 
me that you are all ready to join the company of Christ's 
avowed followers. Christ will be made very happy by 
your decision, and so will 

" Your loving teacher, 

" Andrew Carpenter." 

Utilize the sense of comradeship that is so blessedly 
strong in young people. Say to Edward, " You start, 
and you will have all the others with you." Ask Nancy, 
" Will you join the church at the next communion if 
Ethel will?" Ask Ethel, " Will you join if Nancy 
will ? " Of course, this is an appeal to a lower motive, 
and is to be used only in connection with higher motives; 
but the sense of comradeship is not, at any rate, an 
unworthy motive. 

[78] 



HOW HE LEADS HIS SCHOLARS TO CHRIST 

Get the help of the scholars that are Christians. 
Young people are ideal evangelists to young people. 
Lay on their hearts this soul- winning work as something 
which they know their Lord wants them to do. Send 
each after some special friend. Make the task very 
definite, and call for a report after a given time. Sug- 
gest ways of broaching the subject, — opening questions, 
such as, " Say, Tom, why don't you join the church ? " 
A few practical hints for the work, very simple and 
specific, are better than an hour's exhortation to do it. 

Get the help of the parents. Sometimes this may best 
be sought by a letter; sometimes, by a conversation. 
Tell the parent that you think his boy is ready to join 
the church, and you want to know whether he doesn't 
think so, too. Many parents — Christian parents at 
that — have never spoken to their children on this, the 
one essential theme. You may find it best to suggest, 
tactfully, some way in which the parent may start the 
talk; as by telling the child that you have been talking 
to him about the matter or by showing the child the 
letter that you have written. 

Get the help of the pastor. Suggest that just a word 
from him to Jack will probably win his decision. No 
more than " Isn't it about time you came out for Christ, 
Jack ? " or, " Aren't you ready to join the church, 
Jack ? " And then, later, the teacher must be sure to 
go to the pastor and ask him what the answer was! 
Sometimes the pastor may think it wise to start a pre- 
paratory class for instruction in regard to church- 
membership, and the chance to invite their scholars to 
join such a class will open the teachers' way for many 
earnest talks with their pupils. 

Get the help of books, of tracts, of cards; cards bear- 
ing conscience-moving Bible verses, tracts on the duty 
of confessing Christ, books on Christian evidences. 

[ 79] 



HOW HE LEADS HIS SCHOLARS TO CHRIST 

Get the help of an evangelistic spirit aroused in the 
whole school. Some strong speaker may present at 
every session of the school one reason why every scholar 
should join the church, or one answer to an objection 
commonly made when persons are asked to confess 
Christ. In many schools it has been found exceedingly 
helpful to turn the entire lesson hour, or at least the 
latter part of it, into an evangelistic service, it being 
made certain, of course, that the parents will not object. 
A wise speaker will give the invitation to the Christian 
life very clearly and tenderly. Some prayers will be 
offered by the teachers and older scholars. The schol- 
ars that wish to confess Christ may be asked to rise, or 
to lift their hands, or to sign cards that are passed; or, 
the cards may be taken home, to be signed on consulta- 
tion with the parents. 

After all, however, though these efforts for the entire 
school are eminently useful, and though the teacher may 
obtain all these other aids that I have mentioned, yet 
the teacher himself is the final evangelist. No; not that, 
either, for the final evangelist, back of the teacher, back 
of all other agencies, is the Holy Spirit. If he is not 
with you, the most determined work will absolutely 
fail. If you have won his co-operation, every attempt 
you make will be unexpectedly and gloriously successful. 
Pray for his powerful presence, work as you pray, trust 
as you work, and you will not fail of many precious 
jewels for your crown. 



[80] 



XI 
HOW HE DEVELOPS HIS SCHOLARS 

Leading the scholars to become Christians and join «- 
the church is only the beginning of the highest work the 
teacher can do for them. He must go on to develops 
these immature church-members into full-orbed Chris- 
tian manhood and womanhood. He must lead his 
scholars in the church life which they have entered. 
He must make them independent and originating Chris- 
tian workers. I do not mean that he alone is to do this l 
great work; but it is to be one of his aims, and he is to 
plan and labor with others for its accomplishment. 

How will the teacher develop his scholars into church 
workers ? 

In the first place, by holding church work constantly 
before them as worthy of their energies and ambitions. 
I believe that every Christian should have a religious 
specialty just as much as a worldly calling. The young 
people are not long in selecting their secular occupations; 
this one will be a lawyer, that one a teacher, another a 
housekeeper. Why should not a young Christian be led 
to look forward with equal definiteness and equal zest 
to becoming a Sunday-school teacher, or a worker with 
boys, or the superintendent of a Junior Christian En- 
deavor society, or a regular visitor of the poor and the 
sick in the hospitals, or a church musician, or a leader 
in the social life of the church ? Any one of these pur- 
poses is an ambition quite as lofty, quite as educative, 
as the aim to become a merchant. 

Young people do not allow others to choose their life 
callings for them. Why should they wait for others to 

[81 ] 



HOW HE DEVELOPS HIS SCHOLARS 

impose upon them religious occupations? Why not 
manfully select them, and enthusiastically prepare for 
them ? 

To be sure, a mistake may be made, and the girl who 
thought she would like to be a primary Sunday-school 
teacher may turn out to be the leader of young people's 
mission-study classes. Just such mistakes are made 
when young people look ahead to secular callings. But 
changes in plan are not to be avoided by any method, 
and the impetus and preparation gained by a far look 
ahead are priceless advantages in both religious and 
secular spheres. 

The wise Sunday-school teacher is a statesman for 
the church, holding the church's future very largely in 
his hands, as the secular school teacher holds largely 
in his hands the future of the nation. He will not rest 
satisfied, as do so many teachers, with landing his 
scholars in the church. He will study the character of 
his scholars, and make up his mind what they can best 
do for the church, now they are in it. He will hold 
earnest talks on the subject with the whole class, urging 
upon them the adoption of definite religious businesses. 
He will discuss the matter with one individual scholar 
after another, striving to clarify their minds, stimulate 
their ambitions, and fix their resolutions. 

And the wise Sunday-school teacher, being a states- 
man for the church, will be studying the church as well 
as his scholars. " What kinds of workers does the 
church most need from my school ? from my class ? " 
he will anxiously ask. " What are the local needs, the 
national needs, that the churches should meet ? " And 
he will ever remind himself that he may be training just 
the men and women to meet those needs with pre- 
eminent service. At any rate, he will try, and he will 
endeavor to persuade his scholars to try. 

[ 82 ] 



HOW HE DEVELOPS HIS SCHOLARS 

These important decisions and designs ought not to 
be formed by the teacher alone. The pastor, the church 
officers, all the church members, should be interested in 
determining what sort of product should be sought 
from the Sunday-school. If they have no aim for the 
school, who should have ? If they have no plan, how 
can the teacher be expected to form one on his own 
responsibility ? It is foolish, it is unjust, for the church 
to expect definite results from Sunday-school work as 
bearing on its own great work, unless and until it en- 
tertains definite expectations, and makes those expecta- 
tions known. 

This long look ahead on the part of the scholars, this 
adoption of clear-cut religious specialties toward pro- 
ficiency in which they are working, will do much to 
retain the scholars in the school at the critical age when 
so many begin to think that the Sunday-school is an 
outgrown relic of their childhood, to be cast aside with 
their entrance upon manhood and womanhood. They 
will not have this feeling if the school has introduced 
them to their life occupations in religion, occupations 
that will test the most mature powers, occupations in 
which they see that their Bible training is absolutely 
necessary for success. The very time when most young 
people leave Sunday-school is the time when they are 
most interested in the selection of a secular calling and 
in preparation for it. They may be equally interested 
in the choice and mastery of a religious calling. 

This phase of the Sunday-school work belongs also 
to the young people's society, and Sunday-school teach- 
ers should co-operate to this end with the leaders of that 
organization. But those leaders are usually young folks 
themselves, and more in need of guidance than capable 
of guiding others in this important matter. When by 
the help of his teacher the Sunday-school scholar has 

[83 ] 



HOW HE DEVELOPS HIS SCHOLARS 

selected his specialty, the line of religious work along 
which he wishes to develop, the young people's society 
affords the best possible training school. His work in 
that society should be under the advice and encourage- 
ment of his Sunday-school teacher. 

Also this phase of the Sunday-school work belongs 
certainly to the pastor. He should have a personal 
interest in the practical development for Christ and the 
church of every boy and girl in the school. That is his 
nursery, his most profitable field of service. He can- 
not, of course, do all the work. The Sunday-school 
teachers must be his lieutenants. But those teachers 
should be in constant communication with him about their 
scholars, and should carry out, as far as possible, his de- 
sires for them and his hope for the church through them. 

Especially, he can help the teacher by actually intro- 
ducing the scholar to definite work for the church. He 
can get him to post church notices about the town, to 
obtain subscribers for missionary and other church 
periodicals, to help in caring for the poor and the sick, 
to try to bring into the Christian life some one of his 
comrades, to see that church news is sent regularly to 
a certain paper, to help care for the grounds about the 
church, and do numerous other tasks which the pastor 
should have ready to suggest to his young friends. 
This practical beginning of church work ought to be 
made in youth. If it is made then, how many years of 
vigorous manhood and womanhood will be saved to the 
church! 

Two other persons should, if possible, be joined with 
the teacher in this religious development of the scholar, 
namely, his father and mother. If they are genuinely 
Christian, they will, of course, take the first steps them- 
selves, and Sunday-school teacher, pastor, and leaders 
in the young people's society will be only their ready 

[ 84 ] 



HOW HE DEVELOPS HIS SCHOLARS 

assistants. Too often, alas! the parents have taken no 
thought of their child's religious future, and are far 
more anxious that he should turn out a smart lawyer 
or a shrewd business man than that he should prove to 
be a splendid toiler in the Lord's vineyard. Too often, 
if they entertain any thought of the matter, the utmost 
goal of their desires is that their child should be induced, 
in some way or other, to join the church. 

Yet even such parents should be approached by the 
teacher with his plans and hopes for their child's re- 
ligious progress. Sometimes this very discussion will 
show them their own short-sightedness. It may make 
them more zealous Christians, for themselves as well as 
for their child. At any rate, it is well worth trying. 
The Sunday-school should make it perfectly plain, at 
every stage of its work, that it is not usurping any 
function of the home, though it is often compelled to 
exercise the necessary functions which the home has 
sadly neglected. 

But, while the teacher will win all these assistants in 
the responsible task of developing his scholar for Christ, 
yet the scholar himself is the chief person that is to be 
interested in the work. You want to make him an 
originating Christian, a church worker that does not 
constantly need to be prodded into activity. And so a 
need that he himself sees will do more for him than 
twenty that you point out, and a task that he volun- 
tarily assumes will develop him far better than any task 
that is urged upon him. 

Train your class to watch the church and its affairs 
with a feeling of responsibility for them. A modest sense 
of their youthfulness should be felt, of course, but they 
should be taught to recognize the responsibility of every 
Christian, in proportion to his ability, for the progress 
of the Kingdom. 

[85 ] 



HOW HE DEVELOPS HIS SCHOLARS 

And so you will often discuss in the class the needs 
of the church. You will often ask your scholars, 
" What ought to be done ? How can affairs be bet- 
tered ? What will you do about it ? How are you going 
to put into practice the Bible truths you have been 
learning ? " They may perceive that the church needs 
new members, especially young people; or that the 
prayer-meetings need enlivening; or that the singing is 
dispirited; or that the churchyard is rough and un- 
sightly; or that the town paper is bare of religious news; 
or that the cushions in the pews are growing shabby; or 
that the hymn-books are torn; or that the church needs 
new paint. Whatever is suggested as needing to be 
done, do not thrust it aside as beyond the possibilities 
for your class. A great and blessed surprise may be in 
store for you. It is a Christian heresy, believe me, to 
doubt the capacity of the young for either high thinking 
or noble action! Give them a week to meditate upon 
the matter and talk about it among themselves; then 
let them bring their plans to the class next Sunday. 
My word for it, you will learn something about your 
scholars ! 

The task may be too large for one scholar; then join 
the entire class in its fulfilment, and thus knit the class 
more firmly together. Or, it may require the co- 
operation of several classes to accomplish it, and in the 
fusion of forces your scholars will get their first lesson 
in Christian statesmanship. Or, your scholars may 
need to reach out and win the aid of the entire church; 
and in the effort they will develop wonderfully. Some 
church work may be found even for the youngest and 
least experienced, and more and harder work for the 
older scholars; but there are tasks for all, and tasks that 
they can accomplish. 

I am not forgetting, in all this, that the main thing 
[ 86 ] 



HOW HE DEVELOPS HIS SCHOLARS 

is not to develop the power to do church work, but to 
develop character. If a fine character is formed, fine 
deeds flow from it. Only, I have emphasized the value 
of definite church work because I realize its efficiency 
in the development of a fine character. 

Nevertheless, no teacher can do his best for the 
scholar unless he studies his character, and sees what 
he lacks of a well-rounded Christian growth. Is it 
industry? urbanity? initiative? unselfishness? What- 
ever it is, the teacher should find it out. 

Then, get your scholar to perceive the deficiency. 
Win his co-operation for his own progress. Set before 
him a definite goal in character building, and definite 
means of reaching it. Call upon him to report to you 
frequently how he is getting along in this central task 
of his life. 

Finally, the purposes and ambitions of the scholar for 
his secular calling may be made to help him powerfully 
toward his spiritual goal. He may not himself know 
what he intends to be, whether preacher, physician, 
teacher, or merchant; but if he knows, you should know. 
And knowing this, you will have additional motives to 
which Xo appeal. He wants to be a merchant. Show 
him how essential is character to success in that calling. 
Show him how politeness and helpfulness win customers. 
Introduce him to the wealth in the book of Proverbs. 
Get some Christian merchant to talk to your class on 
the Bible as a business guide. You will be surprised 
to see how eager your scholar is for anything that will 
aid in his chosen calling, and how much higher respect 
he has for godliness when he finds it to be profitable also 
for the things of the present world. 

No man can engage in a task more fascinating than 
the development of human character. The sculptor 
chisels at the block of marble till he releases the image 

[87] 



HOW HE DEVELOPS HIS SCHOLARS 

of beauty that he, and he alone, saw imprisoned within 
it; but, when released, it is only a beautiful image. The 
work of the true teacher, however, comes nearer that 
of the Creator, who breathes into stolid clay the very 
breath of life, and it moves, speaks, loves. The statue 
will crumble back into the dust from which it sprung, 
but the life you have molded will endure, growing 
stronger and lovelier and wiser, forever and ever. 

L.0FC 



D 88 ] 



XII 
HOW HE PASSES HIS SCHOLARS ON 

The one excellence above all others which the lover 
of Sunday-schools envies the secular school is its uni- 
versal enjoyment of the system of grading. No single 
factor contributes more to its success. 

Some Sunday-school teachers oppose any attempt to 
introduce a graded system into their school. They 
make it a boast that the same scholars stay with them 
for ten, fifteen, twenty years. They are second parents 
to their scholars, and barely admit the natural parents 
to a partnership in the sacred trust. They cannot en- 
dure the thought of parting with the scholars that have 
become so dear to them. 

The ideal relation between Sunday-school teacher and 
pupil is indeed very precious, and of course the passage 
from teacher to teacher does, to some extent, destroy the 
force of it. And yet, if a person may possess more than 
one helpful and treasured friend, why may not one 
scholar maintain beautiful relations with a number of 
teachers whom he has enjoyed in succession ? 

However that may be, the retention of one teacher by 
one class produces in the Sunday-school the same mis- 
chievous results it would produce in secular education. 
As well expect the primary school-teacher to carry the 
little tots from the alphabet through the university as 
expect a single teacher to preside with the greatest help- 
fulness over one set of scholars for fifteen years. 

Consider it from the side of the teacher. Some 
teachers are naturally fitted to instruct small children. 

[89] 



HOW HE PASSES HIS SCHOLARS ON 

Others would fail ignominiously there, but succeed as 
teachers of adults. Some are best for boys, and some 
for girls, while others are adapted to mixed classes. 
Some do their good work with large classes, but there 
are eight-scholar teachers, and four-scholar teachers. 

Again, from the side of the scholar. Some ages need 
women; later, the boys especially need men. College 
students will not remain in a class where the methods 
of teaching are suited to ten-year olds. Business men 
enjoy a mode of treatment different from one that is 
appropriate for freshmen and sophomores. 

Besides, a succession of teachers enriches the scholar 
with the best that each can give him. Prom one, the 
scholar may learn to be accurate in his thinking. A 
second will teach thoroughness; and a third, persever- 
ance. One teacher will give him spiritual insight; 
another, mental breadth and outreach; another will fire 
him with an earnest purpose. One teacher will give 
him the discipline he needs; another will inspire him 
with his personal character. 

A graded school brings to bear a fine incentive to study 
that is quite lacking in the hodge-podge of classes that 
constitutes the ordinary Sunday-school. Each grade 
will have a definite work to do, a distinct goal to reach. 
The scholars will be able to note their progress, as they 
pass from grade to grade, and the whole school will 
thrill with a consciousness of achievement. 

Of course, a graded Sunday-school must have a 
curriculum, as carefully drawn up and as strictly fol- 
lowed as the secular school's course of study. Every 
grade will have its minimum requirement, and scholars 
are not to be promoted to those grades without proof 
that the requirements have been met. Age must not be 
allowed to decide promotion, the pressure of personal 
influence must be stoutly resisted. Promotion must 

[90] 



HOW HE PASSES HIS SCHOLARS ON 

be for knowledge alone, if the graded system is to 
succeed. 

What these minimum requirements should be, or, 
indeed, how many grades shall be formed, must be 
determined by each school for itself. You will cer- 
tainly have four grades at least, — primary, interme- 
diate, senior, and adult. The primary graduates should 
know the principal facts in the life of Christ, and the 
outlines of the lives of perhaps twelve of the leading 
Old Testament characters, — Adam, Noah, Abraham, 
Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Solo- 
mon, Elijah, Daniel. They should understand the 
simplest theological truths, and they should have com- 
mitted to memory a large amount of Scripture, — the 
Commandments, Beatitudes, several psalms, several 
parables, and many other famous passages and single 
verses. All this should be fixed upon distinctly, and 
both teachers and scholars should understand clearly 
what must be attained before graduation. 

In the same way the requirements for the intermedi- 
ate department should be determined. They would 
include all the leading facts in the life of Christ, in 
chronological order; an outline of Old Testament his- 
tory; a fuller knowledge of doctrines, with some cate- 
chism work or its equivalent; the fundamentals of Bible 
geography; a general knowledge of the contents of the 
various books of the Bible. 

The senior department will carry farther all these 
lines of study, and will make a beginning with the 
prophets of the Old Testament and the Epistles of Paul. 
It will learn something of how the Bible was formed, 
and of how, through manuscripts and translations, it 
has come down to us. Bible geography and Bible 
antiquities will be studied with some thoroughness. 
The topical study of the Bible will go hand in hand with 

[ 91 ] 



HOW HE PASSES HIS SCHOLARS ON 

the broader development of doctrine. The correlation 
of Bible history with secular history will begin. The 
pupil will enter upon the study of the Bible by books, 
and will gain some knowledge of the various literary 
forms to be found in the Scriptures. 

The work in the adult department will be largely 
specialized and elective. Now the students will choose 
to spend a term on Isaiah, now on the letter to the 
Romans. Again, they may devote a year to Church 
history. Still again, they will trace through the Bible 
the development of the great Christian doctrines of 
sin, atonement, sanctification, the divinity of Christ, the 
influence of the Holy Spirit, the immortality of the soul, 
and the like. If the work in the lower grades has been 
well done, the scholars will have gained powers of orig- 
inal research, and will be able largely to construct their 
own courses of study and make their own discoveries 
in the exhaustless fields of Holy Writ. 

The graded system, thus sketched with admitted 
crudeness and clumsiness, will not be the same for any 
two schools, very likely; and even in the same school 
changing conditions will cause it to vary from year to 
year. Uniformity is not only undesirable, it is harmful. 

Moreover, in transforming the old, haphazard ways 
into this orderly and constructive method, half-steps 
and quarter-steps must be taken patiently, and only a 
distant approximation to the complete system can be 
achieved at first. 

Obviously, the beginning is to be made in the primary 
department, and from there the system will work up- 
ward. Set a standard for the primary scholars, a sum 
of knowledge which each must attain before passing to 
the intermediate department. Keep these require- 
ments constantly in view of teachers and pupils. Do 
not allow favoritism to determine graduation, or influ- 

[ 92] 



HOW HE PASSES HIS SCHOLARS ON 

ence, or considerations of age; insist on fulfilled require- 
ments. 

When a group is ready to graduate from the primary 
department, do not allow these pupils of known and 
tested accomplishment to become merged in the het- 
erogeneous assembly of " the main school." Get a 
special teacher for them. Add to them only those 
scholars, if any, whose knowledge has been proved, by 
examination, to be equal to theirs. 

In this way you will proceed, forming grade after 
grade as the lower grades push on, until after some 
years the entire school is graded. The scholars now in 
your school will slip into their proper places as they are 
reached by the ascending column; and what their proper 
places are will be determined by examinations. 

These examinations should be so frequent that the 
scholars will lose all fear of them. Do not call them 
examinations, but tests. Do not always grade the 
papers, or keep a record of the scholars' percentages. 
Make it perfectly plain that you are no taskmaster, but 
a friend, helping your scholars into knowledge which 
they are to enjoy with you. Thus you will always 
revise the papers with the scholars, after you have ex- 
amined them at home, and you will repeat the questions 
again and again, until they are answered correctly by 
all the class. Your object is not to convict the scholars 
of ignorance, but to teach them. 

The examinations should be as thorough, in manner 
and matter, as any of the secular schools. Insist on 
absolute honesty; copying from each other's papers, 
bad enough anywhere, is a fatal anomaly in Sunday- 
school. These should always be surprise tests, the 
scholars not knowing either when they are coming or 
what is to be their scope. Pencils and paper should 
be furnished the scholars. The questions should be so 

[ 93 ] 



HOW HE PASSES HIS SCHOLARS ON 

framed, as far as possible, as to call for one-word or 
two- word replies, so that little time will be spent in the 
exercise. The teacher will merely read the questions, 
the scholars writing the answers without special con- 
sideration. 

In this way the scholars see just what they have learned 
and the teachers just what they have taught. At first, 
in probably all schools, the result will be dismay and 
discouragement, for it is to be feared that few teachers 
realize how little of what they fondly think their pupils 
have grasped they really do retain. But if, in spite of 
discouragement, the plan is continued, it will gradually 
build up substantial and confident knowledge. The 
teacher will attempt much less but will do it thoroughly, 
and will be delighted to see how much is gained when 
small accretions of knowledge are accumulated with 
systematic persistence. 

Teaching thus tested, a school thus graded, will win 
the respect and inspire the enthusiasm of the scholars. 
It will stand comparison with secular schools and teach- 
ing. The Sunday-school will gain an esprit de corps. 
It will become an organized whole, an army from a mob. 

As the teacher thus passes his scholars along to the 
grades next beyond, his interest in them continues, and 
his relation to them should remain close and continuous. 
No teacher worthy of his place will be jealous of the 
former teachers' influence over his scholars, but will 
rejoice in it. This is one of the advantages of the 
graded system, that it brings to bear on each young 
soul the influence of many minds and characters. The 
teachers should often meet to consult together about 
these pupils of whom they have come to have a common 
knowledge, and in whom they feel a common interest. 

Indeed, the teacher that has really taught, that has 
actually led a scholar along these lofty paths of the 

[ 94 ] 



HOW HE PASSES HIS SCHOLARS ON 

spirit, will never wish to abandon the friendship thus 
formed. Whoever has put a soul in touch with eternal 
truth has established an eternal relation. He has 
founded an endless alliance. The scholar's gratitude 
will grow rather than lessen through ages of ages. 
Bible lessons really taught have no termination, but go 
on as life goes on, widening and deepening with the 
process of time and of eternity. 



[95 ] 



NOV 12 190 



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